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WEE K-D A Y 



RELIGION 



By JASON WHITMAN, 

PASTOR OF THE PAKK STREET CHURCH, PORTLAND. 




portlanir: 

PUBLISHED BY O. L. SANBORN. 



TT 



840. 



^< 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1840, 

By JASON WHITMAN, 

in the Clerks Office of the District of Maine. 



Sanborn &, Foster, Printers. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 
Vital Piety, 13 

CHAPTER H. 
Piety and Morality, 51 

CHAPTER HI. 
Labour, 87 

CHAPTER IV. 
Economy, 132 

CHAPTER V. 
Honesty, 178 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Golden Mean, 227 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Right Use of Property, . 274 



PREFACE, 



In seeking for the causes, which hinder 
the general prevalence of religion in the 
community, I have been led to consider the 
want of harmony and consistency of Chris- 
tian character as among the most promi- 
nent. Christians are witnesses for God 
and for Christ, for the truth and the power 
of the christian religion. Christian min- 
isters, as the advocates of this religion, 
may plead eloquently and earnestly. Still, 
it is with this, as with a case in court, 
the great majority in the community 
will look, not so much at the arguments of 
the advocates, as at the testimony, which 
may be borne, by the witnesses who may 
be brought upon the stand. If, in the 
conduct and character of christians, there 
is proof of the power and the good influ- 
ences of this religion, in restraining from 



PREFACE. 



all that is wrong, and urging to all that is 
right, in making its subjects holier and hap- 
pier, then will it appear, that this living 
testimony , has more weight than the ablest 
argument ever advanced, or the most ur- 
gent appeal ever urged. And it is a truly 
solemn thought, that the humblest chris- 
tian in the community may, within the 
limited circle in which he moves, simply 
by the manifestation of unreserved sub- 
jection, in all things, to christian princi- 
ples, and by breathing, at all times, the 
christian spirit ; simply by the exhibition, 
in his every-day life, of harmony and con- 
sistency of christian character, do more to 
interest and subdue the hearts of those, 
who move in the same circle, than can be 
accomplished by the most learned and el- 
oquent preacher of the Gospel. It is not 
the power of intellect, of argument, or of 
eloquence, it is the power of an upright, 
virtuous and holy life, which, in a commu- 
nity nominally christian, exerts the great- 



PREFACE. 7 

est influence in promoting the general prev- 
alence of religion. 

The want, then, of this harmony and 
consistency of christian character, may 
well be regarded as one, among the prom- 
inent causes, which prevent this general 
prevalence. And this want may be trac- 
ed, I think, to several false notions, which 
prevail. There are some who make great 
pretensions to religion. They are forward 
and active in all religious exercises and 
efforts. Their voices are heard, in earnest 
religious exhortation and in social prayer. 
On the sabbath or in a season of great 
religious excitement, so great is their ar- 
dour that you would regard them as wholly 
absorbed in the subject, and wholly devo- 
ted to the interests of religion. But when 
you meet them, on the week-day and 
in their places of business, you find many 
things in their transactions, which cannot 
be reconciled with the principles of the 
Gospel. You see no proof, that^ in these, 



8 PREFACE. 

they are influenced by the thought^ that 
the eye of God is upon them, and that to 
him they are accountable. This inconsis- 
tency between their reUgious professions 
and their business character, subjects them 
to the charge of hypocrisy. I have my- 
self been led to think that this inconsis- 
tency arises, more frequently, from their 
deceiving themselves, in regard to the true 
nature and proper influences of religion, 
than from a hypocritical attempt to de- 
ceive others, by assuming the cloak of re- 
ligion. It arises, I have supposed, in many 
cases, from an unauthorized distinction be- 
tween piety and morality, between reli- 
gion and business. But whatever be the 
cause, the appearance prevents the pro- 
gress of religion in the community. This 
class exhibit a sabbath-day religion. They 
are deficient in week-day religion. They 
abound in fhe rehgion of the vestry and 
the sanctuary, but are deficient in the re- 
ligion of the farm, the shop, the oflice and 
the counting room. 



PREFACE. 



Then there is another class in the com- 
munity, who are driven, perhaps, by their 
disgust at this inconsistency, to the oppo- 
site extreme. They are careful to main- 
tain unimpeachable correctness of outward 
deportment. And they seem to think that 
this is all that is required. They have no 
living belief in the necessity of a religious 
state of the soul. Comparing their own 
general correctness of conduct, with the 
delinquencies of those, who make high 
professions, they settle down into a deceit- 
ful and dangerous self-complacency. They 
regard themselves as having already attain- 
ed, without once asking whether their affec- 
tions and purposes, their motives and prin- 
ciples, are in accordance with christian 
rejquirements or not. This class think 
much of their reputation in the eyes of the 
community, and but little of the true char-' 
acter of their souls, in the sight of God. 
They abound in week-day morality, but 
are deficient in week-day religion. 



10 PREFACE. 

It is the object of these pages to meet 
and correct these errors, to promote har- 
mony of christian character, and thereby 
aid in hastening on the time, when the 
power of rehgion shall be felt in every 
heart, and manifested in every life. It 
will be attempted to show, in the first 
chapter, that unless there be a religious 
frame of the soul, a religious state of the 
affections, motives, purposes and princi- 
ples, the character is deficient, although 
the outward conduct may in the eyes of 
men appear unimpeachably correct. It 
will be the object of the second chapter to 
show, that, to the truly religious man, there 
is no distinction between the different parts 
of his conduct, by which one is to be re- 
garded as an act of piety, and another 
an act of morality. It will be attempt- 
ed, in several succeeding chapters, to 
point out the importance of applying 
religious principles to the various business 
transactions of life, and to show in what 
manner this is to be done. 



PREFACE. 11 

It is my most earnest hope^ that this Ht- 
tle book, may; to some few at least, be a 
useful aid in promoting consistency and 
harmony of christian character. And es- 
pecially, is it my desire to assist, by the 
suggestions which I have offered, the 
young men in our community, in forming 
for themselves, now at the commencement 
of their course, correct principles for the 
government of their business lives. Should 
what I have here written prove acceptable 
to the public, and be thought calculated 
to effect, in any degree, the objects it is in- 
tended to accomplish, I shall feel truly 
gratified, and shall be encouraged to pre- 
pare another work to follow it, on Spirit- 
uality of Character, which I have planned 
and the materials for which I have in some 
measure collected. 

J. W. 
_ Portland, May, 1840. 



WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 



CHAP. I. . 

THE NECESSITY OF VITAL PIETY. 

It is my desire to awaken^, if possible, in 
the minds of my readers, a deep sense of 
the importance of bringing every part of 
their conduct under the control of religious 
principle. But I am aware, that if I would 
have the suggestions I may offer upon the 
details of the subject of any avail, I must 
begin by establishing principles. If Iwould 
successfully persuade men to strive to pre- 
serve a religious state of the soul,— a reh- 
gious state of the feelings and affections, of 
the motives and purposes, while engaged in 
their business transactions, I must first es- 
tablish the position, and awaken their atten- 
tion to its truth and importance, that a reli- 



14 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

gious state of the soul is absolutely neces- 
sary to the full perfection of the character, 
to the full enjoyment of inward peace and 
enduring happiness. 

And the more especially am I urged to 
commence in this way, by the circumstance 
that this is the particular, in regard to 
which there is the greatest deficiency in 
the community. It is a deficiency in re- 
gard to inward, deep-seated, vital piety. 
And it is the more alarming, because it is 
sanctioned and perpetuated by the feeling, 
on the part of many, that such piety is not 
necessary. I suppose that the character, 
as it relates to the subject of religion, of 
a very large, perhaps I might with safety 
say, of much the largest portion of the 
community, will nearly correspond with the 
following description : They have been 
trained to correct courses of conduct, and 
for the most part, they continue to walk in 
the courses to which they have been train- 
ed. They carefully avoid, as a matter of 



VITAL PIETY. 15 

habit; all open and gross vices. Nay more : 
They conscientiously intend, so far as they 
have any distinct moral purpose, to with- 
stand all temptation to more secret and 
trifling faults. They intend to pursue fair 
and honorable courses of conduct. Still 
further, they feel a deep, though somewhat 
general interest, in the subject of religion. 
They are willing to make exertions, and to 
contribute, according to their means, to 
support religious institutions. The thought 
that they were to be deprived of religious 
privileges, would give them pain. The 
suggestion, that they might, at some future 
time, reject Christianity, or fail of finally 
becoming truly religious, would fill them 
with anxiety. 

In regard to many, I might go farther, 
and say, they have, at times, thought seri- 
ously upon the subject of religion, in its 
application to themselves, and in its claims 
upon their affections and their obedience. 
They have examined the evidences of its 



16 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

truth and heavenly origin. They have feh 
earnestly desirous of becoming themselves 
truly religious. At such times, they have 
read their Bible with increased interest, 
have lifted up their hearts to God in prayer, 
and have desired an opportunity for free 
religious conversation with their pastor, or 
with some pious and devout friend. And 
then these feelings have passed away, this 
interest has subsided, and they have be- 
come comparatively indifferent. 

Such is the description, which, in its 
general features, will represent, I presume, 
the characters and the feelings of a large 
portion of the community, upon the sub- 
ject of religion. There is nothing in this 
general character, nor in their peculiar feel- 
ings upon the subject of rehgion, except 
their want of permanency, to which any 
one can object. It is all right and proper 
in itself, and it is especially important, as 
a preparation of the heart for something 
higher and holier. But, valuable and im- 



VITAL PIETY. 17 

portant as all this is, yet we must admit 
that it does not constitute a perfect charac- 
ter, that there is still a deficiency. And, 
in the spirit of such an admission, I may 
say to each one of my readers, to whom 
the description I have given appUes, "one 
thing thou lackest !" 

But it may be, that some of my readers, 
even while conscious that their souls are 
not in a truly religious frame, may feel per- 
fectly satisfied with their characters, and, 
by way of repelling the charge, may ask, 
" what lack we yet ?" Of every such read- 
er I would ask, will you dwell, for a few 
moments, with serious calmness, upon the 
thought that you may this night be taken 
away by death. This is not an impossibility. 
Others have been, and we are all liable to 
be, taken suddenly away. I suggest this 
thought and ask you to dwell upon it, not 
for the purpose ol disturbing your exercises 
of mind by overwhelming fear, but for the 
purpose of rendering your views of your 



18 



WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 



real character, distinct and accurate, by in- 
ducing you to look at it as it is, in itself, 
and not as it may appear in comparison 
with the general standard of character in 
the community. Dwell then, I would say 
to each one of you, in all calmness, upon 
the thought that you are this night to be 
taken away by death. 

You believe that there is a God. For I 
am not addressing Atheists. You believe 
that the Christian Religion is true. For I 
am not addressing Deists. You believe 
that God is a being of perfect purity and 
holiness, that he cannot look, with compla- 
cency, with satisfaction and delight, upon 
any being or character, which is not pure 
and holy. You believe that neither here, 
nor hereafter, can you yourselves, or any 
other being, take pleasure in his presence, 
while impure and unholy. You believe 
that death will not be the final and com- 
plete destruction of your whole being, that 
your mind or soul, that within you which 



VITAL PIETY. 19 

thinks and feels, which loves and hates, 
which enjoys pleasure and experiences 
pain, will survive the dissolution of your 
body, or be raised from the grave, will pass, 
either immediately at death, or at the gen- 
eral resurrection of all the dead, to anoth- 
er state of existence. You believe that 
you will entej the future life with a con- 
sciousness of what you are at the time, 
and with the remembrance of all that you 
were upon earth, distinctly and vividly be- 
fore you. That neither death, nor any 
influence exerted at death, will change 
your character and general condition, and 
that, consequently, you will pass to a state 
of happiness or misery, according to the 
frame in which your spirit may be found, 
the character your soul may have acquired 
on earth. You beheve that your God will 
then, as he does now, look upon your char- 
acter, as it is in its motives, its purposes 
and its affections, as compared with the in- 
structions of the Gospel, and not as com- 



20 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

pared with the opinions and practices of 
the community. Nay more ; you believe 
that you yourselves will then look upon 
your characters, as they may appear, not 
in the outward act, but in the state of the 
soul, of the feelings and affections, the 
motives and intentions compared with the 
spirit and the principles of the Gospel. 
Suppose then that you are this night to 
close your eyes upon this world, and to 
open them upon the spiritual w^orld, and 
that you are there to enter the more im- 
mediate, or more distinctly perceived pres- 
ence of your God. I would ask if you 
can say, that you are fully prepared, that 
there is, in the condition of your soul, no 
one thing, which you would wish to be dif- 
ferent? Or, to bring the thought still 
nearer home, suppose that it were announc- 
ed to you upon prophetic authority, that 
this night your soul should be required of 
you, so that you might feel it to be as cer- 
tain, as it is that nighl will come. Under 



VITAL PIETY. 21 

this supposition, I would ask, if there be 
not some things in your past courses of 
conduct, or states of feehng, for which you 
would wish to ask pardon before you go, 
some habits of tjiought and feeling, some 
motives and purposes, which you would 
desire should be changed before your de- 
parture ? Dwell upon the thought I have 
here suggested, I most earnestly beseech 
you, and bring it home, each one to his 
particular case, in all its solemn reality, and 
say, do not your own consciences, your 
own hearts declare to each one of you, in 
language plainer and stronger than any I 
can use, '^ One thing thou lackest." I 
would hope that the thought here sugges- 
ted may, not as you read rapidly along, but 
as by yourselves you may dwell upon it in 
silent meditation, produce in the minds of 
some the deep and settled conviction, that 
there is a deficiency in every character, 
where the soul is not in a religious state, 
where there is not inward, deep-seated, 
vital piety. 



22 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

And now, perhaps there may be others 
among my readers, who will make the same 
enquiry in a different state of feeling, who, 
conscious of their own deficiency and be- 
ing desirous of guidance, will ask what it 
is, which is needed to supply the deficiency 
felt ? In answer I would say : You need 
the inward experience of the power of re- 
ligion upon the heart, a truly religious frame 
of the soul, deep-seated, firmly-fixed, all- 
controlling religious principle. Do you say, 
^^ this answer is just what you have often 
heard before, altogether vague and indefi- 
nite ?" — that you know not what is meant 
by the experience of the power of reli- 
gion upon the heart, by a religious frame 
of the soul, by rehgious principle, as dis- 
tinguished from general kind feelings and 
good intentions ? I admit that there is 
some degree of vagueness and indefinite- 
ness in the expressions I have employed. 
I know not but that, until one's feelings 
and state of soul are brought into a living 



VITAL PIETY. 23 

experience of what is meant, there must 
remain something of this. I will, however^ 
attempt to explain the expressions I have 
employed, in language that may suggest 
the true meaning. 

You say that you do not know what is 
meant by the inward experience of the 
power of religion upon the heart. Sup- 
pose that you listen to a discourse, upon 
the relation of God to us as our Father. 
Although there may be nothing new in the 
thought, and nothing peculiar or striking 
in the manner, in which it is presented, 
still, as you listen, your mind becomes deep- 
ly interested, and the relation unfolds it- 
self to your view in all its endearing, and 
touching, and important aspects. New 
trains of thought are excited, new and pe- 
culiar feelings and emotions are awakened. 
You see yourself as you never did before, 
truly, and at all times, an object of God's 
care and love. As you look back upon 
your past life, you can clearly perceive that 



24 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

he has been continually affording you proofs 
of his love. As you perceive and feel all 
this, there may, perhaps, spring up in your 
bosom some faint, though pure emotions 
of love to this great and good Being, your 
Father in heaven. It will differ from your 
feelings of love to your fellow^ beings, for 
it will partake largely of gratitude and 
reverence. It will be marked by a feeling 
of joy, that there is such a Being, that all 
things are in his hand, and all events at 
his disposal ; a feeling of joy, especially, 
that amid all the changes and sorrows of 
life, amid all your own liability to error 
and sin, you are yourself in his hands, the 
subject of his guidance ,and of his restraining 
influences. Suppose that, as your heart is 
filled with these peculiar emotions, the 
thought occurs to you, that in times past 
you have been an ungrateful and disobe- 
dient child, that although you have en- 
deavored to do what was right, yet you 
have not distinctly recognized his paternal 



VITAL PlETVr. 25 

government, have not diligently sought to 
understand and carefully endeavored to 
obey his will. Suppose, still further, that 
these thoughts awaken feelings of Godly 
sorrow in regard to past sins, and holy res- 
olutions of future devotion to his service, 
and that, ever after, the thought of God 
as your Father, and of his goodness to you, 
should operate to restrain from sin and 
urge to duty. In all this, you have en- 
joyed the inward experience of the power 
of religion upon the heart, in all this the 
spirit of God, through the instrumentality 
of Gospel truth, has been striving with 
your spirit. In other words, you have 
experienced the power of a single, but im- 
portant gospel truth, through the blessing 
of God, in your meditations upon it, 
in awakening peculiar emotions, in pro- 
ducing repentance for past sins, and holy 
resolutions of future obedience. 

Again, suppose that, when entirely alone 
in the retirement of your own room, you 



26 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

read, in the Gospel, the account of our 
Saviour, of all that he did, and all that he 
endured, for the salvation of man, from 
the love, the pow^er, and the consequences 
of sin. As you finish the account and 
close the book, you pause and dwell upon 
what you have read. You say to your- 
self, in your silent musings, '^if God is so 
desirous to save men from their sins, to 
call them back to the paths of holiness and 
consequent happiness, if Christ was willing 
to endure so much in order to accompHsh 
this divine purpose, then, surely, sin must 
in the eyes of God and of Christ, be a 
great evil. This thought you dwell upon, 
you turn it over in your mind, and as you 
do this, you are led to look into your own 
heart, back upon your own past Hfe, And 
you perceive that, when compared with 
the law of God, with the example of Je- 
sus, with the requirements and the spirit 
of the Gospel, you have yourself been a 
sinner. You apply your general conclu- 



VITAL PIETY. 27 

sions to your own particular case, and re- 
gard your own sins as great before God. 
Your conscience is awakened, your heart 
is touched, and you ask what you shall 
do to be saved. You turn again to the 
scriptures for instruction on this point. 
You fly to your God in prayer for pardon 
and acceptance. You embrace the Son of 
God in the arms of a living faith, as your 
Saviour, and endeavor to secure the salva- 
tion, which is in Jesus, by obeying, in all 
things, his instructions. In all this you 
have enjoyed the inward experience of re- 
ligion upon the heart. 

Still further, as you pass along in life, 
you are tempted to spend your time in 
idleness, to waste your property in ex- 
travagance, or in riotous living. You 
think of God, and of Christ, of the in- 
structions of the latter as the authorized 
declarations of the former, and you are 
restrained in your desires. You are 
strengthened to withstand the temptation 



^28 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

and avoid the sin. A new course of busi- 
ness opens before you, which promises to 
prove lucrative. You are tempted to en- 
gage in it at once. But you have before 
you the thought of God and of Christ, of 
the will of the former, of the instructions 
of the latter, and of your obligations to 
both. You pause and ask for the moral 
character of the business, for its general 
influence upon society ; you ask if you 
can pursue the business in the exercise of 
christian feelings, and under the influence 
of christian principles, in the feeling that 
by your pursuit of it you are doing 
good to your fellow men, as well as receiv- 
ing good from them. You find, upon care- 
ful enquiry, that these questions must be 
answered in the negative. Your regard 
for God's will and Christ's instructions 
causes you to refrain from engaging in the 
business proposed. 

You are visited with afflictions, you fall 
into perplexity and embarrasmont in your 



VITAL PIETY. W 

pecuniary affairs, and are tempted to de- 
fraud your creditors* You are a mourner 
over some departed friend, w^ho was very 
dear unto you, and you are tempted to 
murmur and repine at the allotment of 
providence. But you think of God and 
of the relation which you sustain to him 
as his children, and of the obligations you 
are under to obey his commands and to 
submit to his dispensations, and you with- 
stand. You press forward in a course of 
honesty, of cheerful submission to the al- 
lotments of providence, and of faithful ac- 
tivity in the discharge of duty. In all 
these supposed cases, you have experi- 
enced the power of religion upon the heart. 
You have learned, I would hope, from 
these illustrations, what is meant by the 
inward experience of religion upon the 
heart. It is the power of religious truths, 
hopes, promises, and sanctions, when 
dwelt upon in silent, self-applying medi- 
tation, when brought home to yourself 



30 WEEK-DAY RELIGION, 

in careful thought, and rendered effectual 
by the blessing of God, to awaken pecu- 
liar emotions and feehngs, to exert a pe- 
culiar power in the control of the conduct* 
By a religious frame of the soul is meant 
a pervading feeling of reverence and of 
holy regard for God, and his will, and his 
providential government. It is a state of 
the soul, in which thoughts of God and 
your being in his hands, at his disposal, 
and under his guidance, give joy ; a state, 
in which we carefully cultivate a holy dread 
of sin, as being contrary to the will of our 
Father in heaven, and as manifesting in- 
gratitude for all his goodness to us ; a 
state, in which we cherish a conscientious 
regard for duty, as being the service which 
God requires, and which is well pleasing in 
his sight. This phrase, a religious frame 
of the soul, expresses the state of that soul, 
which experiences, the most constantly, 
and the most joyfully, the power of reli- 
gious truths, hopes, promises and sanctions 



VITAL PIETY. 31 

on the heart, and is most entirely subjected^ 
in all its feehngs, motives, and purposes, 
to the control of religious principle. 

But you do not perceive, you say, the 
difference between religious principle even, 
and that general intention of doing what 
is right, and avoiding what is wrong, which 
you carefully cherish. That I may the 
more clearly point out this difference, I 
would ask why it is, that you cherish this 
general intention of doing what is right, 
and avoiding what is wrong ? Is it be- 
cause such a course is most in accordance 
with the prevalent feelings of the commu- 
nity, and will best secure the approbation 
of those around you ? Or is it J^ecause you 
have been so trained, have been accus- 
tomed so to conduct, a mere matter of 
habit ? Or is it without any definite reas- 
on, distinctly defined to your own mind, 
that you cherish this general intention ? 
You perceive that you may cherish the 
general intention of doing what is right 



32 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

and avoiding what is wrong, under the in- 
fluence of some one of these reasons. If 
so, you perceive at once, that it will not 
be religious principle. 

But perhaps you carefully cherish the 
intention of doing what is right and avoid- 
ing what is wrong, because you firmly be- 
lieve that there is a God, your Father in 
heaven, on whom you depend, and to 
whom you are accountable ; because you 
feel it to be your duty in all cases, and 
whatever may be the consequences to 
yourself, to obey his will, and because you 
believe that his will requires you, in all ca- 
ses, to do what is right, and avoid what is 
wrong. If these be the reasons why you 
carefully cherish your purpose, then, so far 
as this may go, you are actuated by relig- 
ious motives, governed by religious princi- 
ples. Under the influence of such an in- 
tention, and carefully cherished for such 
reasons, your conduct will not vary, in 
moral character, with your varying feel- 



VITAL PIETY. 33 

ings, nor yet with changing circumstances, 
for you intend to do right at all times, what- 
ever may be the pecuhar circumstances in 
which" you are at the time placed ; your 
conduct, then, will be controlled by a set- 
tled determination, and fixed principle, and 
principle too, resting on your belief in God, 
and your regard for his will. It is then re- 
ligious principle, in its essential character, 
although imperfect in some of its elements. 
Again, you intend to do what is right, 
and avoid what is wrong. But do you 
take the gospel as the guide, in determin- 
ing what is right. When you are in doubt 
in regard to any particular course, do you 
seek carefully for the instructions, the prin- 
ciples, the spirit of the Gospel, in order to 
solve your doubts and determine what 
course you shall pursue ? And do you en- 
ter upon this investigation, with a fixed 
determination that when you have once 
satisfactorily ascertained what these may 
require, you will unhesitatingly obey their 



34 WEEK-DAY RELIOION. 

requirements ? If this be the course you 
pursue in ascertaining what is right, then 
does your religious principle become, to a 
certain degree, true christian principle, a 
principle of unreserved devotion to the in- 
structions of the gospel. And, as you 
seek, in this way, for the right course of 
conduct, your opinions, as to the course 
you are to pursue, will be fashioned, not 
by the opinions, not by the prevalent prac- 
tices of those among whom you may be 
placed, but by your own honest under- 
standing of the instructions of the gospel. 
Still, though you may be influenced by 
your regard for God and his will, and may 
be guided by your study and understanding 
of the scriptures, your religious principle 
will not be complete and perfect in all its 
parts. There are some, who will say that 
Jesus of Nazareth has given a better code 
of morality than any other, who has yet ap- 
peared on earth, while they regard this 
code but as the result of his own process 



VITAL PIETY. 35 

of reasoning. If such be your opinion, 
you may be anxiously desiring to obey 
God's will, and may intend to follow the 
instructions of Jesus, and yet there may 
be times, when you may think that, in the 
exercises of your own minds, you have dis- 
covered the will of God more perfectly than 
it is made known in the gospel. You per- 
ceive then the necessity of going one step 
further. Do you, I would ask, take the 
gospel of Jesus as your guide, because 
you firmly believe that it contains an au- 
thorized declaration of God's will, because 
you firmly beheve that when you read the 
precept,^^ Do unto others as ye would have 
them do unto you," you know by what 
general principle God wishes you to regu- 
late your conduct in your treatment of oth- 
ers, as fully and as satisfactorily, as though 
you had heard that precept proclaimed by 
an audible voice from above ? If so, then 
is your principle truly christian and com- 
plete in all its elements. He who believes 



36 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

that there is a God, on whom he depends 
for all things, and to whom he is accoun- 
table for all that he does, who has deter- 
mined that, in all circumstances, he will 
pursue that course, which he is satisjfied is 
in accordance with the will of God, and 
who, regarding the instructions of the scrip- 
tures as the authorized disclosures of that 
will, takes them as the guide of his con- 
duct, may be regarded as acting under the 
influence and control of religious principle. 
I do not say that this is all that enters into 
the character of a christian. I say only, 
that it embraces the elements of true chris- 
tian principle, complete in all its parts. 

And do you not, I ask, perceive that this 
is something very different from the mere 
general intention of doing what is right 
and avoiding what is wrong ? Are there 
not hundreds in the community, respecta- 
ble in character, well intentioned in pur- 
pose, and correct in general deportment, 
who have not these fixed principles within 



VITAL PIETY. 37 

them, who have not this distinct purpose 
before them, who have not this reason to 
give for the course of conduct they are 
pursuing, for the general rectitude of in- 
tention which they cherish? 

I have thus explained the terms I have 
employed, ^^the inward experience of the 
power of religion upon the heart, a reli- 
gious frame of the soul, deep-seated and 
controlling religious principle." These all 
relate not so much to the outward act, as 
to the state of the soul ; not so much 
to the reputation, which is sustained 
among our fellow men, as to our essential 
character before the heart-searching Jeho- 
vah. It is this religion of the heart and 
soul, this vital piety of which there is a 
great deficiency in the community, and the 
absolute necessity of which is not felt. The 
great mass of the community are seeking 
respectability among their fellow men, but 
they are not seeking with a singleness of 
purpose, and with untiring effort, holiness 
before God. 



38 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

And I doubt not but that some of my 
readers are ready to ask why this is neces- 
sary ? Why is not respectabiUty of char- 
acter sufficient, without hoUness of heart ? 
a general kindness of disposition, without 
a rehgious frame of the soul ? an indefinite 
purpose to do right, without fixed religious 
principle ? I answer, first, that there can 
be no confidence reposed in the perma- 
nency of any character, or any present 
manifestations of character, which are not 
based upon religious principle. There may 
be much correctness of deportment in 
present manifestations of character. But 
this may be the result of the entire absence 
of all temptation to conduct otherwise, or 
of the absence of such temptations as may 
correspond with the weaker parts of the 
character. And therefore, it may hap- 
pen that the same individual would inglo- 
riously yield, when tempted, to favorite 
and easily besetting sins. Hundreds could 
be pointed out, who, when young, were 



VITAL PIETY. 39 

persons of amiable dispositions, of correct 
views, of pure morals, but who, when 
they have gone forth into the world, and 
have been exposed to its snares and allure- 
ments and temptations, have become the 
most abandoned of the profligate. And 
where is the secret of this ? It is this. All 
these pleasing manifestations were the re- 
sult of naturally amiable dispositions, or of 
superficial habits of outward conduct, and 
not the result of fixed religious principles. 
It was simply a beautiful garb, w^hich had 
been woven for them, and anxiously 
thrown over them by parental love, it was 
not the outward manifestation of inward 
principle, implanted by prayerful and care- 
ful parental training. But if one goes 
forth to the w^orld, to its duties and trials, 
its snares and its temptations, with noth- 
ing stronger than amiable dispositions, or 
merely correct moral habits, we tremble. 
How much soever we may admire his 
present deportment, his present manifesta- 



40 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tions of character, we tremble^ unless we 
have reason to beUeve that all is based on 
something more permanent than varying 
feelings or changing circumstances, unless 
we have reason to believe that all is based 
on fixed principle, referring to the immu- 
table and unchangeable will of the eternal 
Jehovah. 

But where character is based upon fix- 
ed religious principle, we have confidence 
in its permanency. It may be assailed, it 
may be shaken. But the very circum- 
stance that it is assailed and shaken will, 
under the influence of true religious prin- 
ciple, lead the individual to seek to sup- 
port it more firmly by increased attention 
to the institutions and exercises of reli- 
gion. That character then, which is not 
based upon religious principle, is defective, 
since how correct soever may be its pres- 
ent manifestations, there can be no confi- 
dence reposed in its future stability, eith- 
er by the individual himself, by his friends, 
or by the community. 



VITAL PIETY. 4l 

Again, the character is deficient and the 
inward peace and happiness incomplete, 
where the soul is not in a rehgious frame. 
This appears from the consideration that, 
in a rational view of all the exigencies of 
our being, every individual will feel him- 
self to be deficient, without these. Un- 
doubtedly there are many, who are far 
from being truly religious, but who feel no 
deficiency whatever in their characters. 
But do they I ask, take a rational view of 
all the exigencies of our condition. And, 
in this question, I refer more particularly 
to that view of our condition, which rep- 
resents us as acting at all times, in the 
presence of the heart-searching Jehovah. 
This is a peculiar and important circum- 
stance of our condition, whatever may be 
our appearance in the eyes of our fellow 
men, and how much soever we may de- 
ceive ourselves, there is one Being to 
whose eyes our characters appear just as 
they are. The inmost recesses of our 



42 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

souls are seen by that all-penetrating eye, 
just as they are in all their peculiarities of 
feehng and motive and purpose. When 
we ask how we stand in the estimation of 
our fellow men, we may perhaps feel that 
there is no deficiency in our characters. 
But when we consider, that the all-penetra- 
ting eye of perfect purity and holiness is 
exercising a moral inspection over us, then 
it is, that we feel the deficiency in all that 
we do, which nothing but a religious frame 
of the soul can supply. 

Just apply this thought and you will see 
more clearly its force. You are lifting up 
your voice to God in prayer in the midst 
of your brethren. You may have an easy 
flow of words, may employ strikingly ap- 
propriate expressions, may exhibit a touch- 
ing fervency of manner, and may by those 
around you, be regarded as excelling in 
the exercise. If you regard only the opin- 
ion of your fellow men, the reputation 
which you may sustain, you may be satis- 



VITAL PIETY. 43 

fied with your performance. But suppose 
the heart has not been m all these services^ 
and that the thought occurs to you, that 
God has been listening to your prayers, 
not that he might be charmed by your 
easy flow of words, but to notice and dis- 
approve of the heartlessness of that ser- 
vice of the lips. Will not this thought 
cause you to feel, deeply, that, even in 
prayer, there is a deficiency, unless the 
soul be in a religious frame. But this, 
some may say, is not an appropriate illus- 
tration, since prayer is an act of religious 
worship, and should of course be offered 
in a prayerful frame of soul. For God is 
a spirit, and is to be worshipped in spirit. 
But I contend that as God is a spirit, he is 
to be served in all the ordinary duties of 
life, in spirit, in a religious frame of the 
soul. Suppose that you have pursued a 
course of conduct, which, in the eyes of 
your fellow men, has appeared perfectly 
fair and honorable, but which you know 



44 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

is not SO, and which you have pursued as 
a mere matter of pohcy, without any true 
honesty of soul before God. In so doing 
you have secured for yourself the reputa- 
tion, among your fellow men, of a man of 
uprightness and integrity of principle. 
When you think only of your fellow men 
and of the reputation which you sustain 
among them, you may have reason to be 
satisfied with your character. But when 
the thought occurs to you that God knows 
that your course has been fair and honor- 
able, only in pretence and not in reality, 
and that he knows the motives by which 
you have been influenced, that there has 
not been strait-forward honesty of soul, 
then it will be, that you feel the defi- 
ciency of every act of your business life, 
which has not been based upon religious 
principle, which has not been connec- 
ted with and accompanied by a religious 
frame of the soul. 

Let me add one illustration more. Sup- 



VITAL PIETY. 45 

pose that you make warm professions of 
friendly regard for one of your fellow be- 
ings, towards whom you entertain far dif- 
ferent feelings. You perform many acts 
of friendship, and are regarded by your 
fellow being as a true and devoted friend. 
Knowing that he cannot penetrate your 
heart, and learn there the true character 
of your feelings, and believing that you 
can always keep him in ignorance, you 
may feel comparatively easy in your course, 
may not be aware that there is a great de- 
ficiency in your character. But, it is an- 
nounced to you, on authority upon which 
you can rely, that he for whom you have 
professed this friendly regard, has recei- 
ved the power of penetrating the inmost 
recesses of the mind and heart, and of 
reading the true character of the feelings 
and motives which are there. Does not 
your knowledge of his possessing this pow- 
er, disturb at once your inward peace and 
happiness, and cause you to feel that all 



46 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

your acts of friendship had been deficient, 
on account of the absence of a friendly 
state of the soul? I present this view, 
and dwell upon this contingency of our be- 
ing, because it is the only view, which will 
lead us to look at our whole characters in 
their real and true fight. That is not our 
real character, which appears to our fellow 
men, who cannot penetrate the heart, 
fathom the affections, or scan the motives. 
And it is often the case, that that is not 
the true character, which presents itself to 
our own eyes, for we may be self-decei- 
ved. That only is the true character, 
which appears in the sight of God. Be- 
fore him all false coloring vanishes, all 
cloaks are swept away, and the soul is 
seen just as it is, in its feelings, motives, 
and purposes. This thought, when con- 
nected with the idea that the eye of God 
is at all times upon us, will cause us to 
look more carefully at our internal and 
real character, and will enable us to de- 



VITAL PIETY. 47 

tect slight faults and deficiencies, which 
we should not have otherwise detected. I 
repeat then my position that the real char- 
acter is deficient, and the inward peace 
and happiness incomplete, where the soul 
is not in a religious frame, because, in a 
rational view of all the circumstances of 
our condition, every man will feel his de- 
ficiency and his want of peace without 
these. 

Finally, I would say that another of the 
contingencies of our being is the passage 
from this life to another, through the gate- 
way of death. This is truly and really an 
exigency of our being. It is what has 
happened to those who have gone before 
us. It is what will happen to each one of 
us, I am aware that, in many minds, 
there is a prejudice against speaking upon 
the subject of death. It is regarded as an 
attempt to drive and frighten men into re- 
ligious courses. But is it, I ask, the part 
of reason, to close the eyes and refuse to 



48 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

look, to shut the ears and refuse to Usten, 
in regard to a fixed and certain contingen- 
cy of our being. Most surely not. It is 
the part of reason to look calmly upon the 
subject, and as we cannot avoid it, to pre- 
pare ourselves, as well as we may be able, 
to meet it in a composed and happy frame. 
Now I ask, if every one, who takes a ra- 
tional view of this exigency of our being, 
will not admit that the charaeter, which is 
not based upon religious principle, and ac- 
companied by a religious frame of the soul, 
is deficient? Remember that all that is 
merely outward, all that constitutes the 
form and appearance of our actions upon 
earth, will be left behind, as we pass the 
valley of death, that only their essential 
character as exhibited in the feelings and 
motives, the principles and purposes, w^ill 
remain. In view of this contingency of 
our being, I would say that, respectable 
though the character may be in the eyes of 
men, still that character is in an important 



VITAL PIETY. 49 

particular, deficient, unless it be based up- 
on religious principle, and accompanied by 
a religious frame of the soul. 

I have thus endeavored to shew the ne- 
cessity of internal piety, of a constant and 
rich experience of the power of religion 
upon the heart, of a religious frame of the 
soul, of firmly fixed, and all-controlling re- 
ligious principle. I have endeavored to 
shew, that, without these there can be 
no confidence reposed, either by the indi- 
vidual himself, by his friends, or by the 
community, in any present manifestations 
of character, how pleasing soever they 
may be ; that, in a rational view of all the 
exigencies of our being, every man, who is 
conscious of his want of these, will per- 
ceive that his inward peace and happiness 
are incomplete, and his character deficient. 

I would commend the suggestions of 
this chapter to that class of my readers, 
who dwell with complacency upon correct- 
ness in outward deportment, and doubt 
4 



50 WEEK-BAY RELIGION. 

the necessity of inward, vital piety of soul. 
Correctness of outward deportment is im- 
portant. But it is especially important as 
the result and the manifestation of a right 
state of the soul. I am about to urge, in 
the following pages, a more than ordinary 
care in regard to correctness of outward 
deportment. But I must urge, as in this 
chapter I have done, the absolute necessi- 
ty of that state of the heart, which is to 
give rise to, and sustain this more than or- 
dinary care. The fountain must be puri- 
fied if we would have the streams pure. 



CHAP. 11. 

PIETY AND ^lORALlTY. 

In the preceding chapter, I have urged 
the necessity of inward; deep-seated, vital 
piety, on the ground that, in all cases, 
character is deficient and happiness incom- 
plete, w^here Jhe soul is not in a truly re- 
ligious frame; where the conduct is not 
governed by an unwavering regard for re- 
ligious principle. I would now invite the 
attention of my readers to such sugges- 
tions as I may be able to offer, upon the 
proper mode of manifesting the religious 
state of the soul in the outward actions of 
every-day life. I fear; that there is much 
error abroad in the community upon this 
subject, and error too, of dangerous ten- 
dency. It is supposed by many, that there 
is a wide distinction between different parts 
of the same character, different actions in 
the same life. Some actions are classed 
under the general head of morality, and 



52 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

are considered as of comparatively minor 
importance in their relation to religious 
character. Others are classed under the 
general head of piety, and are regarded as 
constituting the very elements and essen- 
tials of the christian life. The duties of 
piety are supposed to consist in those acts 
and exercises, which are technically and by 
way of distinction, called religious ; such, 
for example, as prayer social and private, 
religious meditation, religious self-exami- 
nation, and the like. The duties of mo- 
rality are supposed to consist in those out- 
ward actions, which relate to our fellow 
men, or ourselves in our social characters, 
as temperance, economy, honesty and the 
like. A man's conduct on the sabbath or 
in an assembly of religious worshippers, 
and especially the state of his feelings on 
occasions like these, is considered a part, 
a manifestation of his piety. But his con- 
duct and the state of his soul, while en- 
gaged in business transactions are regarded 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 53 

as mere matters of morality^ with which 
piety and rehgion have nothing to do. 
Consequently, a man may be very pious, 
devout and rehgious, while his moral char- 
acter is deficient. Such is the distinction 
usually made between these two classes of 
actions, the moral and the pious. This 
distinction I believe to be entirely without 
foundation, in the truly religious character. 
That there is a distinction between mo- 
rality and piety I admit. Morality is not 
piety. And piety is something different 
from and more than morality. I contend 
that it is not a distinction between the dif- 
ferent acts of the same man's life, but a 
distinction between the characters of dif- 
ferent men. There are truly pious men 
and there are merely moral men, who do 
not profess to be pious. A truly pious man 
is one, who is governed in his conduct by 
a reference to God and his will. He be- 
heves that there is a God, on whom he is 

himself dependent, and to whom he is ac- 

4# 



54 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

countable. He has upon his mind such a 
pervading sense of God's constant pres- 
ence with him, and is so drawn to God by 
gratitude and love, that he is influenced in 
all his conduct by a regard to his will. It 
is his desire to do, at all times, what is well- 
pleasing in the sight of God. 

But here may be one who does not be- 
lieve in the existence of a God. And yet 
he may, in all his dealings, be a strictly 
honest man, faithful to all his engagements 
and promises, an aflectionate father, a kind 
neighbor, a public spirited citizen. In all 
this, he is a morally correct man. But, in 
all this, he has of course no reference to 
God and his will. He is not therefore a 
pious, a religious man. Here is another 
who does not deny the existence of a God, 
nor the truth and heavenly origin of the 
christian religion. But he has not studied 
the truths of this religion, in their appli- 
cation to himself ; he has not dwelt upon 
them in serious and devout meditation, 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 55 

until he has experienced their power upon 
his heart ; he has not brought them home 
to his feehngs and his conscience, with fer- 
vent prayer for a blessing from above, un- 
til he has been regenerated by their influ- 
ence. And yet he may be a strictly and 
highly moral man ; correct in all his con- 
duct, but not governed, even in this cor- 
rectness, by a regard for God and his will. 
He is not therefore a pious man, he does 
not profess to be. It will be perceived, 
then, that there may be a wide distinction 
between the characters of two different 
men. The one may be a merely moral 
man, the other may be a truly pious man. 
But in what does this distinction consist ? 
It consists, not in their pursuing different 
courses of conduct, nor yet in their per- 
forming the same actions in different de- 
grees of perfection, but in their being in- 
fluenced by different motives and princi^ 
pies. Two men may pursue precisely the 
same courses of conduct, and yet the true 



56 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

characters of the two may be very differ- 
ent. One, for example, may pursue a 
course of sterling uprightness and un- 
bending integrity, as a mere matter of self- 
ishness, because he believes that such a 
course will best promote his personal in- 
terests. Another may pursue precisely 
the same course of uprightness and integ- 
rity, as a matter of duty and devotion to 
the service of God, because he believes 
that God requires it at his hands, because 
he is filled with gratitude and love to God, 
and desires to do that which is well-pleas- 
ing in his sight. The real characters of 
these two men are entirely different. But 
the difference consists not in their pursu- 
ing different courses of conduct, but in 
their being influenced by different motives. 
There is nothing mysterious or unnatu- 
ral in thus determining the character by 
the motives, rather than by the actions. 
It is precisely the principle, upon wliich 
men, from the very constitution of their 



PIETV AND MORAIilTY. 57 

natures Judge, in all cases where the mo- 
tives are known. Suppose that two men 
treat you in precisely the same manner, 
perform towards you the same friendly acts. 
And yet you have good reason to believe 
that they do it from very different motives, 
the one, from real, heartfelt, affection for 
you ; the other, under the influence of 
feelings of supreme selfishness, and with a 
desire to secure, thereby, some personal 
good. Would you not regard their char- 
acters as essentially different? And yet 
the difference is not in their conduct. For 
that, upon the supposition, is precisely the 
same. The difference is in their motives 
and purposes. In the same manner, a dis- 
tinction may be made between the merely 
moral and the truly pious man, a distinc- 
tion based, not upon the different courses 
of conduct, which they pursue, but upon 
the different motives by which they are 
influenced, a distinction based not upon 
any difference in the outward act, but 



58 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

upon the diflerent states of the soul. 
I have thus pointed out the distinction 
between the merely moral, and the truly 
pious man. I now proceed to shew that 
there is no distinction between piety and 
morality in the different actions of the 
same man's life. Suppose that you have 
become pious. What, I ask, is the state 
of your soul ? You believe in the exis- 
tence of God. You have right concep- 
tions in regard to his character and gov- 
ernment. Your affections towards him 
are in a right state. You earnestly de- 
sire and sincerely endeavor to obey his 
will. In other words, you believe that 
there is a God, and that you are dependent 
upon and accountable to him. And then 
your affections are brought into such a state 
of love and devotion to him, that it is the 
most earnest desire of your soul to do all 
things in accordance with his will. But 
you are a child. It is God's will that, as a 
child, you should obey your parents cheer- 



PIETY AND MORALITY 59 

fully and promptly. You are a husband or a 
wife. It is God's will that you should 
seek to promote the happiness of the per- 
son, with whom you are connected in the 
marriage relation. You are a parent. 
It is God's will that you should train 
up your children in all faithfulness and 
kindness. You are a man of business. It is 
God's will that you should be a man of truth, 
in all your words, and of strict honesty in 
all your dealings. You are a clerk in the 
employ of another. It is God's will that, 
in the station you occupy, you should be 
diligent and industrious and faithful to 
your employer. Now, if you have become 
pious, you will earnestly desire to obey 
God's will in all things. Why do you 
pray, and meditate upon religious truth, 
why strive to have your soul at any time 
in a religious frame ? Is it not because 
you are in these things obeying God's will, 
because you believe that God requires these 
things at your hands ? But, if God re- 



60 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

quires you to pray, and to cherish a truly 
prayerful frame of mindj does he not, I 
ask, equally require you to be honest and 
to cherish an upright frame of soul ? If 
then you are truly pious, your piety will 
manifest itself by your becoming more 
scrupulous and exact in these common du- 
ties. You will shew your piety, will man- 
ifest the religious frame of your soul, by 
becoming a more obedient child, a more 
kind and devoted husband or wife, a more 
faithful parent, a more upright man of bus- 
iness. Or rather, you will shew your piety 
by becoming more strictly conscientious, 
in regard to all these ordinary duties. Your 
belief in God, your feelings of depen- 
dence and accountability, your desire to 
obey God in all things, will naturally man- 
ifest themselves by your increased care and 
exactness in the performance of the appro- 
priate duties of the circumstances in which 
you are placed, and of the relations which 
you sustain. 



PIETV AND MORALITY. 61 

But, that I may impress this thought up- 
on the mind, let me present it in a differ- 
ent aspect. You are a child, professing 
to be pious, and yet, on some particular 
occasion, you either actually disobey your 
parents, or render them a very unwilling 
and reluctant obedience. Now, I ask you 
to examine the state of your soul during 
that act of disobedience, or those moments 
of hesitation, and in the midst of those 
feelings of repugnance, and is it not very 
far removed from a truly pious and devout 
frame ? Is not the soul, I ask, at such 
moments, very far removed from a deep 
and living faith in God, from a feeling of 
responsibility in regard to your conduct, 
from a state of love and devotion to him, 
from an earnest desire to obey his will in 
all things ? 

Again, suppose that, as a man, profess- 
ing to be pious, you misrepresent in an 
article of sale, or take the advantage of a 
man's ignorance, and attempt to over-reach 
5 



62 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

in a bargain. Suppose, I say, that, while 
professing to be pious, you are guilty of 
these, and similar acts, as some professing 
to be pious, have been. You may call this 
a deficiency in moral conduct only, not 
reaching the heart, and seat of vital piety. 
But is not all this, I ask, as much a viola- 
tion of piety as it would be to neglect the 
exercises of religion, either private or so- 
cial ? Look into your soul and examine 
its condition, its state of feeling, while you 
are engaged in these acts. Is there a liv- 
ing and controlling faith in God, a deep 
and abiding sense of accountability ? Is 
there a strong love of God, and an earnest 
desire to obey his will ? Most surely not. 

Once more, suppose that you are pro- 
fessedly pious. You become embarrassed 
in your pecuniary affairs. You refuse to 
pay your honest debts, to make a full dis- 
closure of your affairs, or to put forth ef- 
forts to satisfy your creditors. You go on, 
regardless of them and their claims upon 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 63 

you and their remarks concerning you, 
living in the same style and at the same 
expense as before. Now^ I ask, if while 
you are doing this, your soul is in a pious 
frame ? Does your belief in God as the 
rewarder of those who diligently seek him, 
your feeling of accountability, your love 
for God, your devotion to his service ; — 
do these feelings and principles pervade 
your soul, and fill it with spiritual life and 
joy ? Do these feelings and principles 
prompt or sanction the course you are pur- 
suing ? No ! 

Under circumstances like these, men 
feel that such courses are not right. But 
they console themselves by the thought, 
that, they are moral duties, and that tho 
most perfect performance of them will 
never secure salvation ; that they can atone 
for any delinquencies in these moral duties, 
by a stricter attention to the exercises of 
piety, and by carefully cherishing deeper 
devotional feelings. 



64 wp:ek-day religion. 

But does it not plainly appear, from 
what has been said, that a truly pious 
frame of the soul will be naturally mani- 
fested in the more faithful and conscien- 
tious discharge of these moral duties. 
Does it not appear that unfaithfulness in 
the discharge of these moral duties indi- 
cates a state of the soul, as far removed 
from a pious and devout frame, as does 
the neglect of exercises truly religious, or 
coldness of feeling while engaged in them ? 
I might pursue this mode of argument fur- 
ther, and show that a neglect to discharge 
faithfully and in a truly conscientious and 
religious manner these common duties, 
operates powerfully to prevent progress in 
piety, if not even to destroy its life in the 
soul. I know it is said that the neglect of 
secret prayer, is a great preventive of re- 
ligious progress, and I believe this to be 
literally true. But it is no greater, and no 
more certain a preventive, than careless- 
ness in regard to the details of ordinary 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 65 

duty. On the contrary, I might show that 
a faithful, rehgious, conscientious discharge 
of the common duties of hfe does operate, 
in a powerful manner, to promote growth 
in hohness, progress in piety. And why 
is this ? Because, I answer, in the latter 
case, we are exercising and thereby 
strengthening the feelings and principles 
of piety in the soul. But, in the former, 
we are violating, weakening, destroying 
these feelings and principles. May we 
not then regard it as a general truth, that 
all, who are truly pious, will manifest 
their piety by a faithful discharge of the 
common duties of ordinary life ? Or, at 
least, may we not regard it as a general, 
fixed principle that they are under obliga- 
tions so to do ? 

This, my readers are ready, perhaps, to 
say, is a self-evident proposition. It 
might seem so, were it not, that facts bear 
me out in the assertion, that its truth is 

not practically believed, that its force is 

5# 



66 WEEK-BAY RELIGION, 

not fully felt even in the professedly chris- 
tian community. I need not dwell upon 
particular and specific illustrations in proof 
of this assertion. I would ask, if, as you 
enter a store, knowing that he who does 
business there, is a professedly pious man, 
you have the feeling that you cannot be 
deceived by him, the feeling that he is a 
pious man, and therefore, would sooner 
cut off a right hand than knowingly de- 
ceive, than violate the principles and the 
spirit of Christianity ? You are told that 
your neighbor has made a large purchase 
of wild land, land which he never saw^, 
and in regard to w^hich he knows nothing, 
but which he has taken upon the represen- 
tations of him of whom he purchased, 
confirmed as they were by the testimony 
of his friends. You inquire for the names 
and the characters of the individuals of 
whom he purchased, and of his friends. 
They are named to you, and you are told 
that they are all professedly pious men. 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 67 

Now, I ask, if the very mention of this 
fact, does, as it certainly ought, impress 
your mind with the feehng that there can 
be no deception, no misrepresentation ? 
Does the feehng rise, at once in your heart, 
^^they are pious, and would sooner sacri- 
fice their hves than say or do what they 
knew or beheved to be wrong ? But I 
need not go further with these questions. 
It is a common remark, that you can place 
no more dependence upon a professedly 
pious man, in a bargain, than you can up- 
on one, who does not profess to be gov- 
erned by religious principle, and in many 
cases, not even so much. Often have I 
been told, by those who regard themselves 
as merely moral men, that they can place 
no dependence upon the honesty of pro- 
fessedly pious men, they charge them with 
hypocrisy. But I am satisfied, after care- 
ful examination upon this point, that these 
men are self-deceived, that they make a 
distinction between the different actions of 



68 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the same life, regarding one portion as 
mere morality , and the other as true piety* 
Let me give another illustration of the 
prevalence of this error* Suppose that 
you have the religious diary of some pious 
man of business. What will be its char- 
acter ? Will it not relate, principally, if 
not solely, to those portions of the day, in 
which he is engaged in religious exercises ? 
Will it not almost entirely overlook those 
much longer portions of the day, spent in 
the transactions of business, or in the dis- 
charge of the ordinary duties of life ? As 
you turn over the pages, you read, "this 
morning I was cold and heavy in prayer, 
this evening had refreshing views of the 
Lord and of his love, and my soul seemed 
to overflow with grateful emotions. On 
one occasion, the mind wanders in prayer. 
On another, there is much of fervor, and 
true devotion of heart." These state- 
ments are all confined, you perceive, to 
certain seasons and certain exercises. It 



PIETY AND MORAJLITY. 69 

is true that these seasons and exercises are 
important, and it is important to watch 
and take notice of the states of feehng, 
which prevail at such times, and charac- 
terise such exercises. But the season of 
devotion or of reUgious meditation is short, 
compared with the hours of business. And 
the duties of devotion are not the only 
duties we are under obligation to perform. 
I contend that the manner of performing 
the business transactions of life, and the 
states of feeling which characterise our 
performance of them, are equally as im- 
portant in a religious point of view. But 
this has not been so regarded by the com- 
munity. Suppose that, in the diary of 
some pious man of business, you should 
read, '' To-day I was strongly tempted to 
overreach in a bargain. But I lifted up 
my soul to God in silent and ejaculatory 
prayer that he would give me strength, and 
I came off victorious. For this, be thanks 
given to God. To-day I was in a particu- 



70 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

larly lively religious frame. My conscience 
was more than usually tender. I was espe- 
cially careful in my business statements to 
speak the truth, the whole truth, and noth- 
ing but the truth ; even though, by so do- 
ing, I deprived myself of the prospect of 
pecuniary gain, which I might otherwise 
have secured. But the approving smiles 
of my own conscience, and the thought of 
my God, sustained me. To-day I was 
greatly pressed for the means to meet my 
notes, and was strongly tempted to appro- 
priate to my own use money, which had 
been entrusted to me by others, through 
their confidence in my integrity, for. safe 
keeping. But a single and silent breath- 
ing of the soul to God for spiritual strength 
enabled me to withstand. To-day my re- 
ligious feelings have been at a low ebb, 
my religious principles weak and wavering. 
I have taken the advantage of my neigh- 
bor's ignorance in a bargain, have passed 
off upon him, as an article of sterling qual- 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 71 

ity, what, were it not for his ignorance, he 
would have known to be an inferior arti- 
cle. I have forgotten or disregarded the 
plain instructions of my master. For my 
conscience tells me that I have not done 
as I should wish to be done by. I must 
pray for spiritual influences, for greater 
strength of religious principle and increas- 
ed liveliness and constancy of religious 
feeling." Suppose, I say, that you should 
find the diary of a religious man of busi- 
ness filled, to a considerable degree, in 
connection with his account of his feelings 
while engaged in devotional exercises, with 
statements like these. Would not many 
be shocked ? Would they not regard it as 
the diary of a merely moral man and des- 
titute of the marks of a truly pious soul ? 
And does not the very mention of the com- 
mon character of these diaries confirm the 
assertion, which I have advanced, that a 
distinction is extensively made between the 
different actions of the same life ; a dis- 



72 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tinction into those, which, in a rehgious 
point of view, are more and those, which 
are less, important. 

But some of my readers may say, we 
must leave our ordinary duties, for a time, 
to attend upon the exercises of religion,, 
if we would be truly and eminently reli-- 
gious. True, we must. But it is not be- 
cause these exercises are in themselves re- 
ligious, and because the attendance upon 
them constitutes one truly religious. It is 
because they are the divinely appointed, 
or the appropriate means of religious im- 
provement. The object to be secured by 
attendance upon these exercises is not self- 
congratulation, or reputation among our 
fellow men, or acceptance with God, be- 
cause we have attended upon them. It is 
a deeper sense of unworthiness on account 
of past sins, a stronger feeling of obliga- 
tion to God, and renewed resolutions of 
more devoted obedience in future. These 
exercises are well adapted to this purpose. 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 73 

There is a season of calm reflection, and 
reflection upon our obligations and our du- 
ties, there is a time for careful scrutiny of 
heart, and an earnest examination of the 
past life. There are influences, connec- 
ted with these exercises, calculated to re- 
vive past religious impressions, now almost 
effaced, to deepen religious principles, and 
to strengthen virtuous and holy resolutions. 
He who has engaged in them, with right 
feelings, and for right purposes, will go 
away from them not merely with the re- 
membrance of the pleasure he has expe- 
rienced, not with self-congratulations that 
he has entered heartily into them, and may 
therefore regard himself as truly religious. 
No. He will go away from them, with 
the feeUng that he has renewed his self- 
consecration to the service of God, has 
sought forgiveness for past sins, has pray- 
ed for the assistances of God's spirit to 
help him to the more faithful discharge of 
all duty in future. He will go away, with 
6 



74 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the feeling that his having done this im- 
poses upon him strong obhgations, if he 
would shew himself sincere and consistent, 
to strive more resolutely than before for the 
faithful, the religious performance of all 
the ordinary duties of life. Religious ex- 
ercises then, when engaged in with right 
feelings and for right purposes, are of the 
utmost importance to the life of piety in 
the soul and the manifestation of piety in 
the conduct. 

But they are not the only means of re- 
ligious improvement. The faithful and 
conscientious performance of duty, under 
the influence of religious principle, is also 
a powerful means of religious improve- 
ment. Suppose that you are awakened to 
a living interest in religion. You will de- 
sire to deepen in your heart a sense of ob- 
ligation to God, to increase feelings of in- 
terest in, and devotion to his service. You 
will also wish to give these feelings a con- 
trol over your conduct. There arc (wo 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 75 

modes of accomplishing these purposes. 
You may, with your associates engage in 
reHgious exercises, and hsten to a favorite 
preacher, as he discourses upon the subject. 
Or you may, as an act of duty, in the ex- 
ercise of self-denial, in order to make your 
conduct conform with what you regard as 
God's known will, stay away and do an 
act of kindness to a friend, or perform an 
item of duty to your employer. Eiti*:. : " 
these courses would probably pr Biote the 
object desired. Your e::gTPfing in religious 
exercises and listening to a r^iscourse up- 
on the subject would deepen your feelings 
and give you enlarged views in regard to 
it. Your practice upon the principle sug- 
gested would serve to give your feelings a 
greater control over the conduct. The 
one would perhaps aid you in the accom- 
plishment of your purposes as much as the 
other, under equally favorable circumstan- 
ces. You are just recovering from the 
disease of sin and you are like one just re- 



76 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

covering from bodily sickness. Such a 
one must lake food in order to promote 
strength of body. But food is not all that 
is necessary. He must exercise the little 
strength which he has, in order that it may 
increase. It must not be all food, nor yet 
all exercise, even when both are precisely 
adapted to his wants. So with you. You 
must, in appropriate religious exercises, 
seek for food to promote the growth of the 
soul, its strength and improvement in all 
the christian graces and virtues. But then 
you must exercise the little strength you 
may have in these virtues and graces, in 
order that it may increase. You must go 
out into the world and bring your religious 
principles into contact with the trials and 
duties of hfe. It must not be all mere taking 
of food, all attention to religious exercises, 
nor yet all devotion to duty,to the neglect of 
these exercises. Both have their appropriate 
places, and both, in their approprite places, 
are of the utmost importance. I say not 



FIETY AND MORALITY. 77 

this in order to lessen your estimation of 
the importance of religious exercises. 
But I say it, that, when you are so situa- 
ted that you cannot attend upon religious 
exercises without neglecting what you be- 
lieve to be duty, you may console and 
strengthen yourself by the thought, that in a 
conscientious performance of duty, you may 
promote your own religious improvement, 
may secure the very object which you should 
seek in your attention to religious exercises. 
I have thus endeavored to meet and cor- 
rect what I regard as a somewhat preva- 
lent and an exceedingly dangerous prac- 
tical error. The position for which I con- 
tend, is, that when a man becomes truly 
religious, his religious principles will ex- 
tend to every act of his life. Every vir- 
tuous act is a manifestation of his regard 
for the will of God, and is, therefore, an 
act of piety. Every vicious or immoral 
act is an indication of his having, for the 
time, forgotten, or of his being indifferent 



78 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

to that willj and is, therefore, a sign of de- 
clining piety of heart. The very act of 
becoming truly religious is an act of self- 
consecration to God and to Christ, where- 
by the individual devotes himself to the 
service of God, in a life of obedience in 
all things to his will, and gives himself up 
to Christ to be moulded by the principles 
and spirit of his religion, in all his thoughts, 
feelings, principles, purposes and conduct. 
And the very process of becoming eminent- 
ly religious, consists in rendering this self- 
consecration more perfect and entire, in 
causing it to extend to the minutest acts of 
life, to the very thoughts and intents of 
the heart. 

Were religion then to exert its true influ- 
ence, and to exhibit its appropriate mani- 
festation, we should find it regulating and 
governing the conduct of every day life. 
It would, not only make men worshippers 
of God in form, on the sabbath, it would 
make them conscientious in the discharge 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 79 

of all duty, during the week. The appro- 
priate place for the manifestation of piety 
is, not merely the closet or the circle of 
social worship, it is, also, the place of one's 
business, the sphere of one's ordinary du- 
ties. Are you a sea captain, or a sailor ? 
The appropriate place for the manifesta- 
tion of your piety, is on board your vessel, 
in foreign ports, or wherever, in the dis- 
charge of your ordinary duties, you may 
be called. Are you a merchant ? You 
are to manifest your piety by the consci- 
entious and religious character of your 
conduct in your store, or on change. And 
I would say the same to every one, of ev- 
ery class, of every occupation. I would 
say that the appropriate place for the man- 
ifestation of piety, is the ordinary sphere 
of man's daily and common duties. And 
what I mean by the manifestation of piety, 
in this sphere, is, the pursuit, in all the va- 
rious circumstances and relations of life, 
of that course of conduct which is dicta- 



80 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

ted by, and is in accordance with, a pious 
and devout frame of soul. 

I would then say to each one of my 
readers^^^ Have you, on the sabbath, and 
while listening to a particular discourse, 
been awakened to the importance of a re- 
ligious life ? Are you beginning to hope 
that you have experienced the power of 
religious truth upon your heart ? If so, 
let your religious emotions and resolutions 
and hopes prompt you to greater care in 
the cultivation of constantly increasing 
tenderness of conscience, in regard to all 
the common duties of life. Let this be 
the first.object of your attention, and of 
your effort. There is, let me assure you, 
great reason why this should be urged up- 
on you, as demanding the first, the princi- 
pal attention. The neglect to do this, is 
one of the most dangerous courses you 
can pupsue. It greatly hinders religious 
progress. If you are the subject of deep 
religious emotions, and those emotions ar$ 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 81 

permitted to evaporate without producing 
any effect upon your conduct, without 
increasing your tenderness of conscience 
in regard to the rehgious discharge of or- 
dinary duty, you have made no rehgious 
progress. You are no further advanced 
in a heavenward course than before you 
experienced these emotions. Your vicious 
habits are not broken up, you are still in 
bondage to sin. Nay more, you have not 
only made no real progress, but you have 
done that, which may prevent your reli- 
gious progress in future. You have re- 
joiced that you were the subject of reh- 
gious emotions, have been satisfied with 
the simple fact, that you have experienced 
them, without inquiring into their influence 
upon your conduct. You are then look- 
ing upon yourself as truly pious, when you 
are not so, and are thereby deceiving your- 
selves. Should you, while in this state of 
feehng, be the subject of religious emo- 
tions, still more powerful than any you 



89 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

have before felt, you will be in danger of 
suffering them also to evaporate in mere 
emotion, without exerting any influence 
upon the conduct. In this way, you may 
go through life the passive subjects of fre- 
quent and powerful emotions, but, at the 
same time, making no actual and percep- 
tible religious progress, no progress in es- 
tablishing religious principles in your heart, 
no progress in the formation of christian 
character. This then is one reason, why I 
would urge you to seek first and principal- 
ly to bring your religious emotions to the 
control of your every-day conduct. 

Another reason is, that you will be prone 
to pursue the opposite course. It is much 
easier, when one becomes interested in the 
subject of religion, to step aside and en- 
gage in some new effort, than it is to per- 
form ordinary duties in a more conscien- 
tious and religious manner. It is easier to 
bring onr religious principles to bear upon 
new courses of conduct, than upon those, 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 83 

in which our mode of performing them is 
fixed by habit. If we attempt the latter 
we must be especially and at all times on 
our guard, lest we fall into our old and 
habitual modes of performing them. Then 
toO; this attempt to perform ordinary du- 
ties in a more religious manner, must be 
made silently, in one's ordinary sphere, 
and often too without producing even there 
any visible change. It is a change of mo- 
tives and of feelings, rather than a change 
of courses of conduct or modes of action. 
It attracts no notice and receives no ap- 
plause. But the very act of turning aside 
into new courses of effort attracts notice 
and secures attention. In the one case, 
we must seek encouragement in the ap- 
probation of our own consciences, in the 
thought that we are seeking to perform 
aright the duties, which God, in his prov- 
idence, has assigned us and that we may 
hope, through his mercy in Christ, to se- 
cure his approving smile. In the other, 



84 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

there is more palpable and immediate en- 
couragement, derived from the company, 
the congratulations and the cheering smiles 
of our friends and neighbors. This then 
is a second reason, why I would urge the 
endeavor to apply rehgious emotions to 
the government of the conduct of every- 
day life. 

There is still a third reason. We are in 
danger of deceiving ourselves, by the in- 
creased interest we feel in religious exer- 
cises, and the increased earnestness, with 
which we may attend to them. These 
are, as has been already shewn, important 
means of religious improvement. But it is 
easier and pleasanter to sit and listen, and 
be passively excited, than it is to engage 
in active efforts to withstand temptation, 
and perform duty. It is easier to express 
our gratitude in words, than it is to mani- 
fest the same in the devotion of the life. 
It is easier to make even a truly humble 
confession of sin, than it is to break off 



PIETY AND MORALITY. 85 

from our sinful courses, to exercise a holy 
watch against temptation, and to practice 
righteousness uniformly and conscientious- 
ly. We should then ever regard religious 
exercises as the means of religious improve- 
ment, and seek to make them instrumen- 
tal of greater faithfulness in duty. If we 
find that our interest in these exercises in- 
creases, and our desire to attend upon 
them grows stronger, while we are render- 
ed no more anxious to perform faithfully 
our ordinary duties, we have reason to fear 
that we are self-deceived in regard to 
them. But, if on the contrary, we find 
that our attendance upon them increases 
our tenderness of conscience in regard to 
all duty, we have reason to rejoice in their 
good influences. But while we regard and 
improve these religious exercises as means 
of religious progress, let us remember that 
they are not the only means. Let us re- 
member that the exercise of our religious 
principles, in * the conscientious perform- 
7 



86 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

ance of all known duty, will serve to 
strengthen these principles, and render 
them more influential over our lives. 

I have thus endeavored, in the first 
chapter, to show the necessity of a pious 
frame of soul, as the fountain and source 
whence must proceed all religious charac- 
ter, and in this, to show that the appropri- 
ate manifestation of a pious frame of the 
soul, consists in the conscientious discharge 
of all the various duties of life, in the en- 
deavor to obey in all things the will of God, 
as made known in the instructions of Je- 
sus. The way is now prepared for a more 
detailed application of religious principles 
to the common duties of life, to which I 
shall ask the attention of my readers in 
several succeeding chapters. 



CHAP, III. 



LABOUR 



I PROPOSE^ in this chapter^ to treat of the 
importance and the uses of labor. I do 
this, because there seems to me to be prev- 
alent in the community unchristian and 
injurious feelings of repugnance to labour, 
to diligent persevering, hard work. The 
great desire of too many seems to be, to 
escape, if possible, from labour, to lead 
lives of ease and indolence. This is seen 
in the views, with which the different pur- 
suits of life are often selected. Parents, 
themselves hard working and industrious 
people, will select, for their sons, the pur- 
suits of Mercantile life, or prepare them 
or one of the several professions, rather 



88 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

than train them up to Agricultural or Me- 
chanical employments. This is well, if 
the selection be made upon proper princi- 
ples and with right feelings. If the parent 
simply regards these as different spheres 
of effort and usefulness, all requiring per- 
severing and hard labor, and, in no de- 
gree, a whit more respectable than other 
spheres of effort and usefulness ; if with 
these feelings, these pursuits are selected, 
as, in parental judgment, better adapted 
to the peculiar capacities, or turns of mind, 
or states of health of their children, it is 
all right. But these are not the feelings 
with which the selection is, in most cases, 
made. It is because Mercantile and Pro- 
fessional pursuits are thought to be less la- 
borious and more respectable, than Agri- 
cultural or Mechanical employments. And 
it is in these views, and the feelings con- 
sequent upon them, that the lurking re- 
pugnance to labour discovers itself. This 
same repugnance manifests itself, still more 



LABOUR. 89 

decidedly and strongly, in the young them- 
selves, who crowd into Mercantile and 
Professional pursuits for the same reason. 

Again, the same repugnance to labour 
is manifested in the language that is used, 
in regard to the selection of a place of 
residence. How often have we heard the 
Western States recommended as a desira- 
ble place of residence, because, with one 
half the labour, the same amount of profit 
and property may be secured. 

Still further, we discover the same lurk- 
ing repugnance, in the proneness, so often 
manifested, to rush into rash and hazard- 
ous speculations, and especially, in the 
language which is employed, in regard to 
the successful results of such speculations. 
Here is one, who, by his honest industry, 
is gradually accumulating a competency. 
But he leaves his regular employment and 
rushes into some speculation. And why 
is this ? Because he wishes to secure not 

merely a competency, but immense wealth, 

7# 



90 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

without subjecting himself to the necessa- 
ry labour. He is successful, and he be- 
comes, by a single operation, rich. And 
now listen to the remarks, which are made 
by others, who are still pursuing their reg- 
ular labours and securing their gradual 
gains. ^^ It seems hard," say they, " that 
we should be compelled to labour years 
for a mere competency, while our neigh- 
bour has, in a single day, secured the pos- 
session of immense wealth." True, my 
friends, I would say to them, it may seem 
to you hard. But it is only because you 
entertain mistaken notions upon the sub- 
ject. That very labour, that constant toil, 
to which you are subjected, is of far more 
value to you, is of far more importance, in 
its influence upon the formation of a manly 
and energetic character, and is far more 
productive of real improvement and of 
true, solid happiness, than all the wealth, 
which your neighbor has so suddenly se- 
cured. 



LABOUR. 91 

Finally, this same repugnance to labour 
is often manifested, by the feelings which 
are entertained and often manifested in 
regard to those, who do and those who do 
not labour. A miserable, idle vagabond, 
who does nothing, and is of no benefit to 
the community, but who can talk flippant- 
ly, especially in that small talk, which re- 
quires no thought or reflection, and who 
dresses elegantly, though it may be at the 
expense of the honest and industrious, of- 
ten receives iji society more attention, and 
is treated with more respect, than an hon- 
est, hard-working, but reading, reflecting, 
intelligent, and well-principled farmer, or 
mechanic. Ladies, and even those of 
whom we have reason to expect better 
things, will spurn the latter, because they 
work, and will throw themselves away up- 
on the former, because they do nothing. 
Nay more. It is sometimes the case that 
even those who claim to be Ladies, by 
distinction, turn away, with a sneer, from 



92 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

others of their own sex, who in mental 
power and moral worth are far their supe- 
riors, because they work, and it may be 
are obliged to work for their own support. 
Is there not then, prevalent in the commu- 
nity, a lurking, but strong and cherished 
repugnance to labour. 

In administering reproof to this state of 
feeling, I would meet it on christian 
grounds, and present, first, the instructions 
of the Bible upon the subject. Have we 
not an express command of God, " Six 
days shalt thou labour and do all thy work?'-' 
This is a distinct and positive command of 
the moral law, no less imperative, no less 
binding, than the command to rest on the 
seventh. The wise man of old, in the 
Proverbs which he has set in order, has 
said, '' in all labour there is profit," and 
has directed the indolent to go to tlie Ant 
and observe her industrious ways and learn 
wisdom. '' This," says Ezekiel, '^ was 
the sin of Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, 



LABOUR. 93 

and abundance o{ idleness.'' The Apos- 
tle Paul gives explicit and pointed instruc- 
tions upon this subject. In the first Epis- 
tle to the Thessalonians he writes, '^ We 
beseech you that you stMdy to be quiet, 
and to do your own business, and to work 
with your own hands, that you may walk 
honestly towards them that are without, 
and may have lack of nothing." In the 
second Epistle to the same church, he is 
still more explicit and authoritative : ^^ We 
commanded you," says he, ^^ that if any 
icould not work, neither should he eat. 
For we hear that there are some, which 
walk disorderly among you, laorking not 
at all, but are busy bodies. Now them 
that are such, we command and exhort, by 
our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness 
they work, and eat their own bread. And, 
if any man obey not our word by this 
Epistle, note that man, and have no com- 
pany with him, that he may be ashamed." 
The Apostle, then, you perceive, inculcates 



94 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the sentiment, that he, who works the 
most dihgently, should be regarded and 
treated as the most respectable man. And, 
still further, as if to place this duty of dili- 
gence in work more firmly upon christian 
grounds, the Apostle connects it, in the 
same exhortation, with true piety. He 
exhorts that men ^^ he not slothful in bus- 
iness^ but fervent in spirit, serving the 
Lord ;'' indicating that God is to be served 
as much by diligence in business, as by 
fervency of spirit. It is plain then, that 
the Bible represents idleness as criminal, 
and diligence in business, yea, in working 
with one's own hands, as a duty. And 
this you will perceive is without qualifica- 
tion. The direction is a general one, hav- 
ing no reference to men's circumstances 
in life. It matters not whether you are 
rich or poor, you are bound, as you would 
serve your God, to be diligent and indus- 
trious. You have no right to be idle. In 
the spirit of Gospel instructions, I would 



LABOUR. 95 

say to every one, you have no more liberty, 
as a Christian, to choose w^hether you will 
be industrious or not, than you have to 
choose whether you will be honest or not. 
The Bible recognizes no such class as idle, 
slothful Christians. 

We have thus ascertained the instruc- 
tions of the Bible upon this subject. Let 
us now view it in another aspect. Let us 
see what conclusions, in regard to the im- 
portance of labour, we may draw from the 
very nature of the case. 

But first, let me make one or two pre- 
liminary remarks. In speaking of labour 
and work, I do not confine the meaning 
of the terms to bodily labour alone. What 
I mean is, the diligent employment of the 
faculties, either bodily, or mental, or both, 
in the accomplishment of some useful 
purpose. There are some, who take a 
narrow and contracted view of this sub- 
ject, and fall into a great error in regard 
to it. They speak of Agriculturists and 



96 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

Mechanics, as constituting the labouring 
classes of the community, in distinction 
from those engaged in Mercantile and Pro- 
fessional pursuits. But this, every one will 
perceive, upon a moment's reflection, is a 
mistake. The Mechanic is no more a la- 
bouring man, than the Merchant, or the 
Lawyer. The former is no more a labour- 
ing man than the Clergyman. The Me- 
chanic is indeed employed during the day 
in bodily labour. But he thereby exercis- 
es and secures the health of his body. His 
mind is free from distracting cares and 
overwhelming anxieties. When he lies 
down upon the pillow of repose, his sleep 
is sweet, whether he eat little or much. 
The case is different with the Merchant. 
There are times when the cares and anx- 
ieties of his business destroy his appetite 
for food, or interfere with the appropriate 
and salutary influences of the food which 
he does take ; times, when they utterly 
banish all slumber from his eyes. But, 



LABOUR. 97 

without referring to such extreme anxiety, 
I may say that, in all cases, mental effort, 
intellectual labour, is more wearing, than 
any bodily labour. It is more trying to 
the nerves, more injurious to the health, 
more destructive of life, to work with the 
head, than to work with the hands. Some, 
it may be, will smile at the idea of regard- 
ing Merchants^, Lawyers and Clergymen 
as labouring men. What has a Lawyer 
to do, it will be said, but simply to give 
now and then a few words of advice, or 
to speak occasionally in court ? This is 
indeed the principal labour of the Lawyer 
which is apparent to the community. But 
be assured there is labour, which the com- 
munity have not witnessed. Long, close, 
and wearing, soUtary study. And remem- 
ber, too, that this labour is necessary, in 
order to render his advice worth seeking. 
A friend of mine, when a student 
in the office of one of the first Law- 
yers in New England, was asked if the 



98 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

splendid efforts of his instructer were the 
effusions of the moment, or the result of 
hard labour. His answer was, " when 
that man is entrusted with an important 
cause, and is preparing for its management, 
I can see by the haggard looks of the 
morning, that the night has been spent, 
not in refreshing slumbers, but over books 
and in wearing study." The Lawyer then 
is a labouring man, although the most dif- 
ficult and wearing of his labours are not 
in public, are not seen by the community. 
There are some, too, who will say of a 
Clergyman, ^^ what does he know of la- 
bour ? What has he to do but to speak 
for a half an hour twice or three times on 
one day in seven ?" I will tell you my 
friends what he has to do. He is compel- 
led to labour, and diligently too,not only on 
the six days, but often on the six nights of 
the week, in order to be prepared to speak 
on the seventh either acceptably or profit- 
ably. Often is it the case that, while the 



LABOUR. 99 

people are enjoying quiet repose and se- 
curing refreshment and new vigour, their 
pastor is consuming the midnight oil, la- 
bouring with swelling temples, excited 
nerves, and health-destroying intensity of 
application, that he may be prepared so to 
meet them on the Sabbath as not to bring 
disgrace upon the cause he advocates, dis- 
honour the Master he serves, or endanger 
the souls to whom he ministers. And yet, 
by many. Mercantile and Professional men 
are not regarded as belonging to the la- 
bouring portions of the community. To 
me it seems that if there is any distinction 
of classes to be made, in the community, 
in regard to this particular, these, the Mer- 
cantile and Professional,should be regarded 
as peculiarly the labouring classes, as en- 
gaged in the most health-destroying, and 
life-consuming labours which are perform- 
ed. Nor are these labours any less im- 
portant to the best interests of the com- 
munity, than those of the Farmer or Me- 



100 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

chanic. Is the Teacher^ who instructs and 
discipHnes and forms the mind and char- 
acter of the young, rendering a less im- 
portant service to the community, than he 
who provides food for the body, or cover- 
ing to conceal its nakedness ? Most surely 
not. Is the well informed and honourable 
Lawyer, by whose advice you are guided 
in your business, and by whose knowledge 
you are protected in your rights, rendering 
a less important service to the community, 
than the Mechanic who constructs your 
dwellings ? Most surely not. Is the Mer- 
chant, who takes the surplus productions 
of your labour and gives you in return the 
productions of other climes and other 
hands, which you need; is he, I ask, a use- 
less member of the community ? By no 
means. His services are as important as 
yours — Mechanic or Farmer though you 
maybe.- Nay more. Is not the apparently 
inefficient man of science, w ho investigates 
the motions of the Heavenly bodies, and 



LABOUR. 1 01 

studies out the laws and principles of Nav- 
igation, rendering a service to the com- 
munity, as important as is the hardy sailor, 
who by the guidance of these principles 
and laws traverses the pathless deep? When 
you consider the vast change that has 
come over the community in consequence 
of the application of steam to Mechani- 
cal purposes, and ask who has done this, by 
whose labour it has been accomplished ? 
the answer must be, that it is the result 
of scientific investigations, the work of 
the mind, the production of those, who 
are too often regarded as not belonging 
to the labouring classes. 

I have offered these remarks, in order 
to meet and rebuke a tendency of the times 
to make a distinction of classes in our 
community, as marked by the peculiarity 
of man's employments. We have heard 
of working men^s parties, and of loork- 
ing men's candidates for an election, I 
have noticed a village store designated as 



102 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the Labouring People's store. But there 
is no real foundation for these distinctions 
of classes. For I trust that I have said 
enough to shew, that, so far as the degree 
of labour itself and the importance of 
that labour to the best interests of the 
community are concerned, there is no 
ground for the distinction. In all pursuits, 
we may find individuals, who are not la- 
bouring men, who are idle drones, and 
who ought to be looked upon, by all, either 
with contempt, or pity, according as the 
fault may be their own or that of their pa- 
rents. But we have no good reason to 
make a distinction of classes according to 
pursuits. For in all pursuits there is, or 
there may be, a diligent employment of the 
faculties, either bodily or mental, or both, 
for the accomplishment of some useful, 
purpose. 

But the tendency to divide the commu- 
nity into classes according to their pur- 
suits, has arisen, in part, perhaps, from the 



LABOUR. 103 

improper feelings which are often mani- 
fested in another quarter. There has been, 
and still is, a disposition, on the part of 
some, to regard labour, and especially 
some particular kinds of labour, as desti- 
tute of respectability. And, as this is an 
injurious and unchristian feeling, I may be 
permitted to administer a word or two of 
rebuke, in passing. On what, I ask, does 
respectability depend, when we look at the 
subject in the light of reason and Christi- 
anity ? Does it depend on the dress which 
a man may wear ? I am aware that, in 
some minds, difference in dress constitutes 
the distinction in regard to respectability;, 
which is recognized. But this ought not 
so to be. Let the King and the Mechan- 
ic or the day labourer, as they stand side 
by side, be stripped of their dresses or 
clothed alike, and no human eye could de- 
termine which is the most respectable of 
the two. Let the Queen and her dress- 
maker be clad in the same material and 



104 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

in the same style, and they would appear 
alike respectable to human eyes. It is 
wrong, then, morally wrong, to allow dif- 
ference of dress to make a distinction in 
regard to respectability. For, on this 
ground the vilest of human beings, may 
clothe himself in the garb of honesty and 
purity, and may appear to human eyes 
truly respectable. 

But should respectability be based upon 
employment ? Most surely not ! Em- 
ployments should be selected in reference 
to men's capacities and peculiar turns of 
mind. It may be, that one has that pe- 
culiar turn of mind, which would fit him 
to become a first-rate Mechanic, who would 
make but a miserable appearance in any 
of the professions. And his brother, it 
may be, is the very reverse ; qualified by 
mental peculiarities for professional studies 
and pursuits, and unfitted for Mechanical 
employments. Suppose then that these 
two are directed to the employments, for 



LABOUR. 105 

which they are respectively fitted. Shall 
the one, I ask, be regarded as less respec- 
table than the other, when both have fol- 
lowed the pursuits for which God in their 
peculiarities of mind had respectively fitted 
them ? Certainly not ! Respectabihty of 
character then cannot and ought not to be 

based upon employment. 

Does it depend on intellectual power ? 
In some degree it does. We are so con- 
stituted, that w^e naturally respect vigor of 
intellect^ reach of thought, strength and 
soundness of mind. And yet, in some ca- 
ses, acknowledged intellectual power loses 
its hold upon the respect, because there is 
not connected with it correctness of moral 
principle and character. On the contrary, 
moral goodness, sterling integrity, unwav- 
ering uprightness, honesty and purity, even 
when unaccompanied by great intellectual 
capacity, do command our respect. And 
there seems to be a sound reason for this. 
Intellectual power we regard as a gift, for 



106 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the possession of which no credit is due to 
him on whom it is bestowed ; we respect 
it as a valuable behest, an important trust 
bestowed and committed by God. But 
correctness of moral character we regard 
as an attainment, the object of choice, and 
the result of effort, and as, therefore, re- 
flecting credit upon him who has secured 
it. Moral character then, purity of inten- 
tion, singleness of purpose, honesty of mo- 
tive, and uprightness of principle, are the 
true grounds of real and heartfelt respect. 
Our respect may be increased or diminish- 
ed in degree, as these are connected with 
greater or less intellectual power. 

This, it seems to me, is the true chris- 
tian view of respectability. Christianity 
teaches us to look upon the soul, as con- 
stituting the man, and upon the intentions, 
motives and principles, as giving charac- 
ter to the soul. As I look out upon soci- 
ety, in this view, I cannot see that one oc- 
cupation is more respectable than another. 



LABOUR. 107 

provided both are alike in accordance with 
God's will and beneficial to men. Here 
is the man who rides in his coach, and 
there is his brother inan^ who sits upon 
the box and guides the horses. In many 
cases, the latter is the more respectable 
man of the two. But why so ? Because, 
I answer, there is more of the man about 
him; than about the other, more purity of 
intention, more honesty of purpose, more 
integrity of principle, more of every qual- 
ity, which goes to lay the foundation for 
true respectability of character. Here is 
the man of wealth, worth his thousands 
and his millions. There is his brother 
man, an indigent day labourer, barely sus- 
taining, by the toil of his hands, himself 
and those dependent upon him. And yet, 
it may be, that the latter is the more respec- 
table of the two The former may have ac- 
quired his riches by pursuing some branch 
of business, which is inconsistent with the 
spirit of the gospel, he may have acquired 



108 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

them by dishonesty or over-reaching, and 
have secured their constant and rapid in- 
crease, by meanness and miserly avarice. 
There may be less of honesty or of honor, 
less of noble generosity, of sympathy and 
fellow feeling with his brother man. And, 
therefore, in the eye of reason and of 
Christianity, he may be the less respecta- 
ble man of the two. Here is the mistress, 
clad in silks and satins, and there the 
maid, employed in the domestic service of 
the family. And yet the latter may be the 
more respectable of the two. The former 
may be filled with vanity or pride, her 
mind and heart may be characterized only 
by frivolity or selfishness. The latter may 
be actuated by a conscientious regard for 
duty, for the precepts of the gospel and 
the will of God, and may manifest great 
kindness of feeling, and an unswerving up- 
rightness of purpose, and may, therefore, 
in the eye of reason and of Christianity, be 
the more respectable of the two. I do 



LABOUR. 109 

not say that these things are always so. 
But I contend that they may be so. There 
is nothing in the different employments 
of individuals, which may render one more 
and the other less respectable, provided 
the employments are alike in accordance 
with the will of God, ahke promotive of 
the best good of man. 

Let it not be said that by these remarks, 
I shall excite a feeling of discontent^ in 
those who are engaged in what are com- 
monly regarded as the more laborious and 
less respectable occupations of life. The 
tendency of my remarks, when rightly un- 
derstood, and properly considered, will, I 
am satisfied, be the very reverse. The 
reason why some are discontented with 
their situations and employments is, that 
they are regarded as less respectable than 
some other situations and employments. 
But I would teach that every situation and 
every employment in life, which is the al- 
lotment of God's Providence, and which is 
9 



110 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

honest and useful, is equally respectable 
with every other situation and employment. 
I would say to the domestic, your situation 
and employment are as respectable, as are 
those of your master or mistress, provided 
you manifest in them equal purity of in- 
tention, and an equally conscientious devo- 
tion to your pecuhar duties. Would you 
be truly respectable and secure the heart- 
felt respect of those around you, you must 
look, not to your situation and employ- 
ment, but to your conduct and character. 
Could these views be generally embraced, 
and the feelings, which are their natural 
offspring, be experienced, tliere would be 
more of self-respect, which would inspire 
greater contentment. Men, in every situ- 
ation, and in every employment, would re- 
spect themselves, would seek to secure the 
respect of others, by the correctness of 
their deportment, and, if treated with dis- 
respect, they would look, with pity, upon 
the false notions, and narrow views of 
those, wlio might so treat them. 



LABOUR. 1 1 1 

I would now speak of the blessings of 
labour. It promotes health and vigor of 
body and mind. It is one of the laws of 
our nature, stamped upon the very consti- 
tution of our being, that the exercise of 
our various faculties is one of the condi- 
tions of our enjoying them in health and 
vigor. And this law, though discovered 
by the light of reason, is to be regarded as 
an expression of the will of God, just as 
clearly so, as if it were revealed in the gos- 
pel. It is a law, which cannot be evaded 
or disregarded with impunity. It is a 
common remark that you cannot treat na- 
ture with impunity. You may lead a life 
of bodily inactivity, if you choose. But 
you must suffer, as the inevitable conse- 
quence, much of pain and disease and 
bodily weakness. So you may lead lives 
of mental indolence. But mental imbe- 
cility will be the consequence. By the 
employment and consequent exercise of 
the various faculties, both bodily and men- 



il2 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

talj they are developed and strengthened 
and trained to useful applications. With- 
out labour then, without the faithful exer- 
cise of the various faculties of your body 
and mind;, you cannot become what you 
are capable of becoming, and what God 
intended you should become. You can- 
not bring to the highest degree of perfec- 
tion, and make the best possible use of all 
the capacities, which God has bestowed 
upon you. 

This, I suppose, all will admit. But 
there is another view, which I would urge 
upon the attention, although it is one 
which some may question. It is this. No 
exercise, either of body or of mind, which 
is engaged in merely as exercise, can 
equal, in its beneficial consequences, the 
same amount of exercise, when taken in 
labour, for the accomplishment of some 
useful purpose. If engaged in the pursuits 
of mercantile or professional life, you may 
walk for exercise. And this is profitable. 



LABOUR. U 113 

But if you will select some one or two poor 
families, as the subjects of your kindness 
and counsel, and will take your accustom- 
ed walks, for the purpose of accomplishing 
some plans of benevolence in regard to 
them, you will derive a much larger 
amount of benefit from the same amount 
of exercise. It is no longer mere exercise, 
it is labour, effort put forth for the accom- 
plishment of some useful purpose. The 
mind is turned away from the contempla- 
tion of one's self, and directed to the ac- 
complishment of some good to others. 
And so too, you may exercise your minds 
in the discussion of various questions of 
dispute. This exercise of mental powers, 
if pursued in the love of truth, may be 
profitable. But by no means so much so, 
as the actual employment of the mind in 
the accomplishment of some useful pur- 
pose. In the case I have suggested, that 
of visiting the poor, there is a much more 

healthful and profitable exercise of the 
9# 



114 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

mind, in devising the best modes of ren- 
dering assistance. The feelings are inter- 
ested, the sympathies are enhsted and the 
whole soul is awakened to new, and before 
unthonght of, energy. And why is this ? 
It is because there is labour, because you 
work. It seems to me, therefore, that 
writers on health have fallen short of the 
true point, when they recommend merely 
exercise. This is not all that is required. 
There must be work, labour, the employ- 
ment of the faculties, both bodily and men- 
tal, for the accompUshment of some useful 
purpose. 

Again, labour, is a safeguard against 
temptation, and a preventive of sin. 
I have occasionally heard expressions of 
surprise, that persons, who once promised 
fair, should have disappointed the hopes 
of their friends, and have become intem- 
perate, profligate, abandoned. I have in- 
quired the process. The answer has indi- 
cated, as a preliminary step, the habit of 



LABOUR. 115 

idleness. When I have learned this, I 
have ever felt that there v^as no cause for 
w^onder. When a man is entirely free 
from any engrossing object of pursuit, has 
no useful purpose w^hich he vs^ishes and is 
aiming to accomplish, either by mental or 
bodily effort, it is scarcely possible that he 
should withstand temptation or avoid sin, 
I have never seen the man, whom I should 
be willing to guarantee from a course of 
vice and sin, if he is to lead a life of idle- 
ness. And even where idleness does not 
lead to profligacy, it produces either a friv- 
olous and imbecile state of the mind, or a 
busy meddlesomeness in other people's 
concerns. You have undoubtedly obser- 
ved the peculiar connection in which St. 
Paul speaks of work. ^^ For we hear," he 
says, '^ that there be some among you, 
which walk disorderly, working not at ally 
hut are busy-bodies.^^ And, if you look 
into society and learn who are the busy- 
bodies, who go from house to house as 



116 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tale-bearers and mischief makers, you will 
find that they are those who work not at 
all, not those who have some regular em- 
ployment, whose minds and energies are 
taxed for the accomplishment of some use- 
ful purpose. Labour, then, work, is a 
safeguard against temptation, and a pre- 
ventive of sin. I have known one instance 
of a person, who became the slave of in- 
temperate habits, and then threw off the 
chains of his slavery, and becanie a man, 
through the instrumentality of labour, of 
hard work. He engaged in undertakings, 
which taxed his powers, and employed his 
time, which left him no moment for indul- 
gence and destroyed the hankering desire. 
And it has long been my honest conviction, 
that the friends of the intemperate are 
called upon, not only to preach the doc- 
trine of total abstinence from all intoxica- 
ting liquors, but to furnish employment, to 
place their intemperate friends in a situa- 
tion where they could be constantly en- 



LABOUR. in 

gaged in work. I believe, too, that; when 
a lad or young man manifests ^tendencies 
to dissipation, the best step that can be ta- 
ken in regard to him, is, to place him 
where he will be compelled to task the 
mind, to employ the body, to occupy the 
time in labour. Indeed one of the secrets 
of all government of the young, whether in 
the family or the school, is to keep them 
employed. Let it then ever be borne in 
mind, that labour is a safeguard against 
temptation and a preventive of sin. 

Still further, it may be said that it is la- 
bour, which makes the man in all the im- 
portant manifestations of character. When 
a child is born, he possesses nothing but 
capacities. He can hardly be said to have 
even a body. He has those elementary 
germs, which by labour and effort may be- 
come a body, strong, vigorous and active. 
This you can easily prove. You may 
carry your child always in your arms. And 
if you do, he will, as the result, have no 



118 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

limbs to walk with. They will not grow 
and gather strength, and become what they 
were intended to be. It is labour only, 
effort, which will produce the desired de- 
velopment, and enable him to walk. So 
too, he has no eyes in reality, eyes that 
enable him to see as we see, to distinguish 
objects as we distinguish them. It must 
be labour, in looking, in learning to see, 
in strengthening and developing the pow- 
er, and in educating and training the or- 
gan. This all may at once perceive, from 
the circumstances that if a middle aged 
man, who had been born blind, should re- 
ceive his sight, he would not know how to 
use it, would be compelled by oft repeated 
effort, to learn to see. And so it is with 
every faculty of the body. It is with the 
child only a capacity, an element, and it 
requires labour and effort to develope and 
mature it, and render it capable of useful 
applications. 

As it is with the body, so it is with the 



LABOUR. 119 

mind. In the infant, it is only a collec- 
tion of mental capacities, requiring labour 
and effort, in the exercise of each faculty, 
to give it strength, to bring it to maturity. 
Has the child memory ? It has indeed 
the capacity of remembering. But it re- 
quires effort, in the exercise of this faculty, 
to produce a ready and retentive and val- 
uable memory. Has the child judgment ? 
It has the elementary germ, out of which 
judgment is formed. But it requires la- 
bour, in the exercise of this faculty, to 
give it strength and soundness, to render 
it in reality judgment, adapted to the uses 
of life and truly valuable. And so it is 
with every intellectual faculty. There are 
originally only elementary capacities. And 
labour is as much an element in the for- 
mation of Physical or intellectual man, as 
are the original capacities. If it be said 
that no labour or effort could make a man 
what he is, without these original capa- 
citiesj it may with equal truth, be said 



120 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

that no original capacities can make the 
man what he is, without labour. 

It is the same with the moral and spirit- 
ual parts of our nature, as it is with the 
Physical and Intellectual. It is labour, 
here, which developes and makes the man. 
He is not the most truly moral man, who 
has read the most, and who can talk the 
most learnedly, upon the subject of moral- 
ity. It is the man, who, in the daily la- 
bours and duties and trials of life, has most 
carefully exercised his conscience and his 
spiritual affections. One man may have 
studied long and deeply upon the subject 
of conscience, and may be able to discourse 
most learnedly upon it. And yet, he may 
be, by no means, so correct in moral char- 
acter, so well established in moral princi- 
ples, as another, who has gone out to the 
ordinary labours of life, and endeavored to 
conduct, amidst them all, in a truly con- 
scientious manner. One man may have 
read and studied upon the subject of our 



LABOUR. 121 

spiritual natures, upon our relation to the 
Deity, and upon all the various topics 
which naturally come up in such a con- 
nection, and he may talk learnedly upon 
these subjects. But, at the same time, he 
may not be so truly a spiritually minded 
man, as another, who has gone forth to the 
toils and cares and anxieties of a life of 
labour, and comparative indigence, ever 
regarding himself as a spiritual being, and 
ever striving, in all the scenes and circum- 
stances of life, in all its duties and trials, 
its Joys and its sorrows, to secure spiritual 
improvement, and prepare for spiritual joy. 
Such a one has met with obstacles, to his 
progress, which have, for a time, hindered 
his improvement in spiritual mindedness. 
But, by his efforts and labours to overcome 
them, he has gained spiritual strength. It 
is then, even in regard to our moral and 
spiritual, as it is in regard to our Physical 
and Intellectual natures, labour, effort, 
which makes the man. 
10 



122 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

I am aware that this view is different 
from that, which has been held by some 
devoted; but, as it seems to me, mistaken, 
christians. Men have thought that, if 
they could be freed from labour, from the 
cares and the business of this life, and be 
permitted to devote themselves wholly to 
musings upon spiritual things, they should 
certainly become holy. The Convent and 
the Monastery have been established, that 
the cares and labours of this life might be 
shut out, and the whole soul be devoted to 
the cultivation of holiness. But they have 
too often proved only the hot-beds of ini- 
quity, shewing that God's ways are wiser 
than our ways. Let it then be deeply im- 
pressed upon our minds, as a truth well 
established and not admitting of even a 
doubt, that it is labour and effort which 
makes the man what he is, which perfects 
every original elementary capacity of his 
nature, and enables him to become, in all 
respects, what he was intended to be ; that 



LABOUR. 123 

this is as much an essential element in the 
formation of a truly noble and worthy 
character, as are the native capacities with 
which he is blessed. I have thus briefly 
pointed out the advantages of labour. It 
promotes health and happiness, is a safe- 
guard against temptation and a preventive 
of sin. And; finally, it is one of the es- 
sential elements, which go to make the 
man what he is, and what he was intended 
to be, in regard to his Physical and Intel- 
lectual, his Moral and Spiritual nature. 

There are some practical inferences, 
which flow from the views that have been 
advanced, and which ought not to pass 
unnoticed. 

And first, there are many in the 
community, who, from their very circum- 
stances, are compelled to hard and unre- 
mitting toil. And it is sometimes the case 
that such are, in the inmost depth of their 
own souls, murmuring at their lot, and 
wishing to be freed from the necessity of 



124 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

labour. My subject, and the views which 
have been advanced, administer a word of 
caution and of consolation to such. To 
all who are in these circumstances, I would 
say, '^ It is God's Providence which has 
permitted you to be placed where you 
are, and it is permitted for your good. 
If you have right views upon the subject, 
you will thank God that you are called up- 
on and even compelled to labour. You 
will rejoice in the very toil, to which you 
are subjected, as the means, in God's hand, 
and through his blessing upon your efforts, 
of guarding you from sin, and of develop- 
ing and perfecting the various capacities 
of your nature. You will, therefore, cher- 
ish a determined contentment with your 
lot. You will go cheerfully to your labours, 
satisfied with the moderate gains, of which 
they may be productive. Suppose that I 
could unfold before you the pages of your 
future lives, and could shew you that, at 
the close of ten years from this time, you 



LABOUR. 1 25 

will;, by a course of unremitting labour 
and gradual gain^, have secured a compe- 
tency, or that, by a single successful ope- 
ration in speculation, you could secure, at 
once, the same amount of property ; that 
the choice between these two courses is 
before you. If truly wise, you would 
choose the former course of hard labour 
and gradual gain, in preference to the lat- 
ter sudden accumulation. The very labour 
itself, the toil, the effort, would be of more 
value to you in regard to your improve- 
ment, your character and your happiness, 
than all the property you might secure." 
Let all those who are compelled to labour, 
cherish a determined and cheerful content- 
ment with their lot. Let them seek to 
improve their condition, not by making 
haste to be rich, which will bring them 
into a snare, but by a course of well do- 
ing, by faithfulness in the labours, consci- 
entiousness in the duties, a:nd patience in 
the trials of the condition in which they 
10^ 



126 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

are placed. Will such say that they are 
looked upon with contempt by those who 
are not compelled to labour? I answer 
you are not so regarded by any, whose re- 
spect is worth possessing. The man or 
the woman, who will look with contempt 
upon a fellow being, because he is com- 
pelled to labour, is unworthy of regard, 
and should only be pitied for the igno- 
rance manifested or the false notions im- 
bibed. 

In the second place. Let us all 
learn to respect our fellow men for the in- 
ward purity of their souls, the moral worth, 
the uprightness and integrity of their char- 
acters, and not for their dress, their station, 
or their employment. It is on this point, 
that the opinions and the feelings of the 
community need to be changed. Labour 
is regarded as an evil that must be sub- 
mitted to. It is not held in honour. Men 
seek to avoid it, if possible. Here is one, 
who has been a Merchant, and who, in 



LABOUR. 127 

that pursuit, has looked upon his pursuit 
itself 5 and not upon his diligence and in- 
dustry, his honour and integrity in its va- 
rious labours, as the source of his respec- 
tability. But the times have turned against 
him, or his own carelessness and rash ad- 
ventures have brought upon him pecunia- 
ry ruin. And now he feels that it would 
be derogatory to engage in the labours of 
Agricultural, Mechanical, or other similar 
pursuits. He would willingly, indeed, be- 
<^ome a gentleman farmer. But he is un- 
willing, he does not consider it respecta- 
ble, to engage in the daily labours of the 
farmer, and to dress in the coarse apparel, 
which is in accordance with those labours. 
And, consequently, he continues to dress 
in the finest of cloth, to spend his time in 
walking the streets, looking with contempt, 
it may be, upon his more coarsely clad and 
hard labouring brother, whom he passes. 
Such a one demands respect, on account 
of his former pursuits and his present ap- 



128 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

pearance. But, in the eye of reason and 
of Christianity, he is, by the very course 
he pursues, making himself one of the most 
contemptible men that walk the streets. 
If he would take his hand-cart, and go in- 
to the streets, and honestly earn his living, 
he would be much more worthy of respect, 
and he would be much more respected, 
by all whose respect is worth possessing, 
than he now is. But the prevailing feel- 
ings of the community are sadly pervert- 
ed upon this point. I have seen the in- 
temperate mother, bringing disgrace upon 
her family, causing her husband and her 
children to blush and hang their heads, and 
I have heard her say that she could not 
consent that her son should be nothing 
more than a Farmer or a Mechanic, he 
must be a Merchant. Instances might be 
named, of parents, themselves hard-work- 
ing, ijndustrious, respectable people, who, 
rather than their son should work, would 
place him behind the counter, to be em- 



LABOUK. 129 

ployed in that most disgraceful occupation 
of dealing out ardent spirits by the glass 
and gill, and this too, because it is more 
respectable than labour. Alas that men 
should be so infatuated. We are ashamed 
of those courses, which God has appoin- 
ted, which experience has sanctioned, 
which are most in accordance with our 
plain republican institutions, and our pure 
and spiritual religion. And it is not strange 
that it should be so among those who pro- 
fess to be christians, the followers of him 
who wrought, during the early portion of 
his life, with his reputed father Joseph, 
the Carpenter, and who selected his ap os- 
ties from among the fishermen of Galilee ? 
But, finally, let me impress it upon the 
mind of every one, that it is his duty, as a 
moral and accountable being, his religious 
duty as a christian, to labour, to employ 
his faculties, both bodily and mental, in 
the accomplishment of some useful pur- 
pose. And let me still further say, that 



130 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

this is a duty, which depends not upon 
the circumstances of wealth or of poverty, 
in which you may be placed, a duty growl- 
ing out of the very wants of your nature, 
and enforced by the obligations you are 
under to your God. I would have you 
regard labour, not merely in reference to 
its influence upon yourselves as Physical, 
Intellectual, or even moral beings. I place 
the subject upon higher grounds. I rest 
the duty upon christian obligations. I say 
that he who wastes his time in idleness, 
sins against his God. If you are wealthy 
and under no necessity of labouring for 
your own support, put forth your energies 
in persevering and well-directed efforts to 
do good to others. If you cannot obtain 
employment in one pursuit, seek it in 
another, for all honest pursuits are alike 
respectable. If you cannot secure what 
you would regard as a sufficient pecuniary 
compensation for your labour, take what 
you can obtain ratlicr tlian remain idle, 



LABOUll. 131 

and look to the moral results to supply the 
deficiency. For in all labour there is pro- 
fit. Strive then^ I would say to all my 
readers, strive to avoid the fate of him 
vv^ho indolently hid his talent in a napkin. 
Strive rather to be able to say to your Lord 
and Master, Lord by labour, toil, and un- 
remitting efforts, we have added to the 
original capacities bestow^ed upon us, to 
the five talents, other five and have made 
them ten. Then may you expect to hear 
the approving declaration, ^'v^ell done 
good and faithful servant, enter thou into 
the joy of your Lord." 



CHAP. IV. 



ECONOMY. 



I PROPOSE, in this chapter, to speak upon 
the subject of economy. I know not but 
my readers may feel, as this subject is an- 
nounced, that, at this time and in the 
present posture of pecuniary affairs there 
are, every where around them, far more 
efficient preachers of economy than I can 
be. But there is, in the very remarks 
which are made upon the subject, some- 
thing which, as it seems to me, impUes a 
mistake, in regard to the true grounds on 
which the virtue of economy rests, and the 
nature of the obhgations, by which we 
are bound to practice it. We speak of 
economy, not as a christian duty, but as 
an expedient, required by the pecuhar cir- 
cumstances of the individual or the times. 



ECONOMY. 133 

We say that such a one is indigent^ or on- 
ly in moderate circumstances, and, there- 
fore, it becomes him to be economical. 
Or, we say more generally, the times are 
hard, and the prospect, in regard to pecu- 
niary matters, gloomy, and therefore it be- 
comes all to practice this virtue. 

In these remarks it is implied that econ- 
omy is an evil, to which we may, at times 
and from pecuhar circumstances, be com- 
pelled to submit, rather than a christian 
virtue, which we ought ever most carefully 
to practice; One prominent object of the 
remarks I am, at this time to offer, will be 
to correct these false notions upon the sub- 
ject, to shew that economy is not merely 
an expedient required only by pecuHar 
circumstances, but a most solemn, a most 
important christian duty, to be practiced by 
all men, at all times, and under all circum- 
stances of pecuniary condition. 

My first argument, in proof of my 
position, I shall draw from the language 
11 



134 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

of the Saviour, when after having fed the 
multitude^ he directed the disciples to gath- 
er up the fragments, that nothing be lost, 
taken in connection with the circumstan- 
ces under which, and with the character 
of the person by whom, they were uttered. 
At those times, when the provisions, by 
which life is sustained are scarce, and 
when men feel that, if the scanty supply 
be exhausted, it is uncertain whence it can 
be replenished, at such times, all will say, 
" gather up the fragments that nothing be 
lost," at such times all would regard the 
practice of economy as a solemn duty, 
and would feel that the individual who, 
under such circumstances, could be waste- 
ful or extravagant, would be doing wrong, 
would be guilty of sin. But still, the feel- 
ing is, that the duty grows out of the pe- 
culiar circumstances, and that, if these 
circumstances could once be changed, the 
duty would be no longer binding. But 
not so thought our Saviour. He was sur- 



ECONOMY. 135 

rounded by about five thousand men. He 
made them seat themselves upon the grass^ 
and then took the five barley loaves and 
the two small fishes, and, after giving God 
thankSj he break and distributed them to 
the hungry multitude. All partook and 
were filled. For, by the exertion of mi- 
raculous power, he so increased the quan- 
tity, that there was enough, and more 
than enough for all. By this act, he shew- 
ed that he possessed the power of supply- 
ing the wants of his followers, to any ex- 
tent. And, from what we learn from oth- 
er parts of his history, we have reason, I 
think, to believe that, whenever it might 
be necessary and consistent with the spirit 
of his mission, and with his duty to God, 
he could, by a single word, change the very 
stones around him into bread to feed the 
hungry and fainting crowds, who might 
throng him. The first promptings of those 
who should act only from impulse and feel- 
ing, would be to scatter the fragments to 



136 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the four winds of heaven^ or to leave 
them to their fate upon the spot where the 
multitude had been fed. What need 
such would say, what need can there be 
of gathering up and saving these insigni- 
ficant and broken bits. He, who has, in 
this wonderful, this miraculous manner, 
supplied our wants, must be possessed of 
inexhaustible resources, and can, at any 
moment, and from the most unpromising- 
materials, supply them again. By a sin- 
gle word, he can change the stones around 
us into nourishing food, and, without even 
a word, but by a single exercise of his 
power, he can increase the sniallest supply 
to an abundance. What need, then, of 
gathering up and saving these broken bits, 
these fragments of the loaves and fishes? 
And indeed, if we look at the subject only 
in relation to want and necessity, may we 
not all, in truth, say, what need of gather- 
ing up and saving these fragments ? But 
not so said our Saviour. His direction 



t:coNOMY. 137 

waS;, ^^ Gather up the fragments.'^ And 
why so ? Was this done that the multi- 
tude, by seeing the twelve baskets filled 
with the fragments, might be more deeply 
impressed with the miracle which had been 
wrought ? This was, undoubtedly, one of 
the effects produced by the act upon their 
minds. But, if we believe that our Sa- 
viour spoke in the plain honesty of his 
soul, we must regard that, as the reason 
of the direction, which he assigned as 
such, " that nothing be lost." 

From this single incident, we may learn, 
I think, one of the general principles of 
Christ's character, and may conclude that 
it was with him a pervading feeling, a fix- 
ed principle, that nothing, adapted to be 
useful, is ever to be wasted. Nay fur- 
ther, may we not conclude that, with him, 
it was a pervading feeling, a fixed princi- 
ple, that no power or facility in creating 
suppUes, can ever warrant or justify a 
waste even of seemingly unimportant frag- 
11=^ 



138 WEEK-DAY RELIGION, 

ments, which can be rendered useful. 
Such;, I beUeve, to be a principle of Christ's 
character. And, as his character is ever 
to be regarded as a living representation 
of his religion, I believe this to be a prin- 
ciple of his rehgion. And therefore I 
draw the conclusion that, under the chris- 
tian dispensation, every one, whatever 
may be his circumstances, how great soever 
may be his wealth, how unlimited soever 
his resources, is solemnly bound to prac- 
tice, at all times, the virtue of economy. 

My second argument, in proof of my 
position, I draw from the generally ad- 
mitted principle of stewardship, in regard 
to property. I say the generally admitted 
principle. For, I presume, that all who 
believe that there is a God, believe, also, 
that men are dependent upon and accoun- 
table to God. But if these two points, de- 
pendance and accountability, be admitted, 
it will follow, as a natural, if not as a ne- 
cessary inference, that men are but stew- 



ECONOMY. 139 

ards ill regard to their possessions, receiv- 
ing them at the hands of God, and accoun- 
table to him for the right use of them. 
I suppose then, that every man, who sin- 
cerely believes that there is a God, must, 
to be consistent, admit that he himself is a 
steward, in regard to all that is entrusted 
to him, in regard to his property, his time, 
his talents, his influence. But what does 
this principle imply, how far does it extend, 
how minute are its applications ? Are you 
accountable for the right use of the whole 
of your property, or only for a part of it, 
while you are permitted to waste or squan- 
der the rest ? May you pursue a course 
of carelessness, profusion and extrava- 
gance in regard to that portion of your 
property, which is broken up into small 
items, provided you are careful and pru- 
dent in regard to that which is in large 
sums ? In answer to these questions, I 
contend that, if we are accountable for the 
right use of property at all, we are accoun- 



140 WEEK-DAY RELIGION, 

table for every iota of it. If you may, with 
impunity and innocence throw away the 
fragments, you may, so far as the right, the 
principle of the thing is concerned, throw 
away the whole loaf. If it is not wrong, 
morally wrong, to waste or squander the 
smallest division of a dollar, then it is not 
wrong to waste or squander a million of 
dollars. The principle of stewardship, if 
it be admitted at all, is alike applicable to 
both cases. And this is the point, the ap- 
plication of the principle to small items, as 
well as to large items, upon which I wish 
to fix attention. Men look, not so much 
at principle, in this thing, as at the amount 
of property in question. If an individual 
waste or squander a large amount of prop- 
erty, at once, every one will cry out that 
he does wrong. But if another waste or 
squander the same amount of property, by 
a long course of gradual carelessness and 
extravagance, few feel that he is guilty of 
the same wrong-doing. And yet, if we 



ECONOMY. 14i 

look at the rights at the principle, we 
must admit that, if the one be guilty, the 
other is equally so. But in the latter 
case, the individual may justify himself. 
He may say, I am in the possession of so 
much wealth, that I do not feel the need 
of being thus careful and exact, I can af- 
ford to live extravagantly, and to neglect 
little things. I can pursue this course and 
never suffer want, as the consequence. 
Such is his defence. Will not this de- 
fence hold equally good, in the case of 
him, who squandered a large amount of 
property at once ? May not he too say, 
I am in the possession of so much wealth, 
that I can afford to do this, can do it and 
never suffer want as the consequence ? It 
seems to me that the argument is as sound, 
and the defence as good, in the one case, 
as in the other. And how would you an- 
swer him, who should thus justify and de- 
fend himself, for having madly thrown a- 
way his property ? Would you not say to 



142 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

him^ '^ It may be true that you do not need 
this money, that, so far as your necessities 
are concerned, you can afford to throw it 
away. But stop, that property is not 
yours. It is simply entrusted to your care 
as a steward, and you are most solemnly 
bound to faithfulness and exactness, in the 
discharge of the duties of your stewarship. 
Suppose that one of your wealthy fellow- 
men were to appoint you his steward, and 
were to commit to your charge a portion 
of his property, granting you, at the same 
time, the liberty of using, for yourself, so 
much of that property as might be neces- 
sary for your comfort and improvement, 
in all that is good and true ; but requiring 
you to dispense the rest according to his 
specific directions, or his known will and 
character. Would you not feel yourself 
under obligations to be careful and exact 
and prudent in the management of what 
he had entrusted to your care ? Most sure- 
ly you would. Would you feel yourself 



ECONOMY. 143 

at liberty to throw his property into the 
ocean /because you might not yourself feel 
the need of it ? Most surely not. And 
is the principle, the duty in the casC; al- 
tered, because it is God, and not one of 
your fellow men, who makes you his stew- 
ard and entrusts you with his property ? 
Will you feel at liberty to throw away his 
property, because you do not yourself need 
it ? Certainly not. If you do not your- 
self need it, there may be some of God's 
children, some of your brethren, who do 
feel the need ; there may be important 
social, intellectual, moral and spiritual in- 
terests of the community, which might be 
promoted by a right disposition of that 
property. And one purpose, for which 
God has bestowed upon you your riches, 
is, that you may employ them in promo- 
ting these important interests." Such is 
the manner, in which you would reason 
with the man, who would madly squander 
a large amount of property, at once. And 



144 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

your reasoning would be conclusive, and 
unanswerable. But would not this same 
course of reasoning be equally conclusive, 
equally unanswerable, when addressed to 
one, who is squandering his property in a 
course of gradual wastefulness and extrav- 
agance ? And, I ask, if thisi reasoning, in 
this application of it, would not be conclu- 
sive and unanswerable ? Is it not then 
true, that he who permits through careless- 
ness and neglect, the smallest amount of 
property to be wasted, or who, beyond the 
supply of his own necessities, the promo- 
tion of his own comfort, or the advance- 
ment of his own improvement, expends, in 
extravagance, the most trifling sum, is 
thereby guilty of wrong doing ? Every 
one then should cherish the feeling that, 
in the property, which he may possess, he 
has received a solemn trust from God. 
That his wealth is committed to him as a 
steward, and that he is bound, by the 
strongest obligations, by the deepest re- 



ECONOMY. 145 

sponsibility, to employ it in the accomplish- 
ment, as far as may be in his power, and 
in such ways as may approve themselves 
to his judgment, of the purposes of the di- 
vine will, in the promotion of the happi- 
ness and the improvement of all around. 
It is permitted, indeed, that he may em- 
ploy, of the property entrusted to him, 
w^hatever may be necessary for his own 
comfort, his rational enjoyment, his per- 
sonal improvement in taste, intellect, and 
morality. All the rest he is to employ for 
the promotion of the highest happiness and 
the best good of those around him, his 
family, his friends, and all within the 
sphere of his influence, within the reach 
of his benevolence. He has no more 
right, in the view of reason and of Christi- 
anity, in the sight of God, and under the 
admitted principle of stewardship, he has 
no more right to waste or to squander, to 
be careless or extravagant, than he would 
have, should a fellow man commit to his 
12 



146 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

care a certain amount of property, for a 
definite time and a specific purpose. You 
see then to what extent the principle of 
stewardship in regard to property, is to be 
carried, and how minutely it is to be ap- 
plied. And, if you are inclined to start 
back from the extent, or the strictness of 
this conclusion, pause, I beseech you, and 
see where its rejection will lead you. If 
you believe that there is a God, who sus- 
tains and governs all things, then, to be 
consistent, you must admit that men re- 
ceive all that they possess at his hands, 
and are accountable to him for the use 
which they make of it. The admission is 
a natural, a necessary inference from the 
belief. But, if men are accountable, at 
all, they are accountable in all things. 
And, consequently, the rejection of the 
conclusion, to which we have been led, 
will result, if followed out, in the practical 
denial of the existence of a God. Here, 
then; T close my second argument in proof 



ECONOMY. 147 

of my position, and say that tlie generally 
admitted principle of stewardship in re- 
gard to property implies, that all men are, 
at all times, bound to practice the duty of 
economy. 

My third argument, in proof of 
my position, I draw from the influence 
which the practice of this virtue, wall ex- 
ert in saving one from temptation and sin. 
Perhaps an anecdote, the statement of a 
fact, which occurred within my observa- 
tion, will set this argument in a clear light. 
I once had under my charge a lad, who 
was guilty on a particular occasion, while 
with me, of stealing. As he had ever be- 
fore appeared to be conscientious and cor- 
rect, I was led to seek for the steps, by 
which he had been led to the act. The 
process was this. When he received 
spending money from his father, he scat- 
tered it with an unsparing hand, he was 
wasteful and extravagant. But, when that 
spending money was gone, he could not 



148 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

bear to deny himself of accustomed indul- 
gences. And, when his companions were 
about to enter upon some social amuse- 
ments, requiring a contribution of such 
small sums as they could each spare, he 
could not bear to be alone, in not contri- 
buting. He had by his extravagance 
brought himself into circumstances, in 
which the temptation to theft was too 
strong for his moral principles. In en- 
deavoring to save that lad, it was neces- 
sary to do something more than warn him 
of the awful nature and the sad consequen- 
ces of his act of theft. All this he might 
deeply feeL Against all future similar de- 
linquencies he might firmly resolve. And 
still, if his habits of wastefulness and ex- 
travagance should remain, he might be a- 
gain brought into circumstances, in which 
the temptation would be too strong for his 
principles. It was necessary, therefore, to 
warn him against these habits of extrava- 
gance, to urge upon him the practice of 



ECONOMY. 149 

economy. Now I presume there are many, 
who fall into sin, in precisely the same 
way, in which this lad did. Here for ex- 
ample is a young man, who obtains a stock 
of goods, principally upon credit, and 
commences business. Business is brisk. 
Money flows freely into his hands. He 
feels that he is doing well, better, perhaps, 
than he expected. He becomes careless 
in his expenditures. But, at length, the 
period of his credit expires, his payments 
become due, and he is short of funds. 
Under these circumstances, he is tempted 
to do wrong. He has, by indulgence, 
formed habits of extravagance, from which 
he has not strength to break away. He 
has not personal independence, individual 
self-respect, and strength of moral courage, 
sufficient to enable him to go to his credi- 
tors and frankly and honestly say, ^' I have 
been careless, wasteful and extravagant. 
I have lived beyond my means, and am 
not able to meet your just demands. I 
12=^ 



150 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

now see my folly and my sin. I am de- 
termined to alter my course, to break 
away from my habits of waste and extrav- 
agance, to retract all unnecessary expen- 
ses, to commence and pursue a course of 
rigid economy, and, if upon the strength of 
these resolves, and the manifestation of 
this change, you will have patience with 
me, I will pay you all." This course, I 
say, the young man has not moral courage, 
and personal independence to pursue. He 
feels that he cannot dig, and that to beg 
he is ashamed, and therefore, he had rath- 
er cheat. He avails himself of those laws, 
which were enacted for the encourage- 
ment of honesty in misfortune, throws his 
creditors out of their just dues, and con- 
tinues on in his wasteful and extravagant 
course. And now where is the difficulty. 
It is not that he intended originally to be 
dishonest, nor that he had the least suspi- 
cion that he was eventually to become so. 
ft is, that, through want of economy, by 



ECONOMY. 151 

a course of waste and extravagance, he 
has brought himself into circumstances, in 
which the temptation to dishonesty is too 
strong for his principles. Had he pursued 
a different course, had he avoided waste 
and extravagance, had he been truly and 
strictly economical in all things, he would 
have been saved from this temptation and 
sin. I have supposed a case, which is, I 
doubt not, an exact counterpart to many, 
which really exist in society. I have giv- 
en a representation, which I am satisfied, 
the conscience of many a man in the com- 
munity, will recognize as truly applicable, 
in most of its features, to his own course. 
I have done this to illustrate my argument, 
that the practice of economy will exert an 
influence to save men from temptation and 
sin. In applying this argument, I may 
say, that we are all weak, frail and liable 
to sin ; that it becomes us to be ever on 
our guard, to avoid those courses which 
may lead us into temptation, to surround 



152 WEEK-DAY RELIGION, 

ourselves with all possible good influences. 
We may be wealthy now. But we know 
not how soon our riches may take to them- 
selves wings and fly away. In view, then, 
of the influence of economy in saving us 
from temptation and sin, I say that it is ev- 
ery man's duty, at all times, to practice 
this virtue. 

In connection with this conclusion, I 
may add, that the practice of this virtue 
will not only save us from temptation and 
sin, but will exert a direct and powerful in- 
fluence, in the promotion of our moral and 
spiritual improvement. But how so, it 
may be asked. I answer, that the prac- 
tice of economy, upon the grounds upon 
which I have placed it, is nothing more or 
less, than the exercise of moral principle, 
in regard to our expenditures. These 
things are generally regarded as mere mat- 
ters of expediency. But the course I re- 
commend, takes them out from under 
the control of expediency, and places them 



ECONOMY. 153 

under the sanction of duty. It teaches 
all that in these expenditures they are not 
merely to exercise their fancy, or their 
taste, or even their prudence, but that they 
are to consider their accountability, and to 
consult their conscience. 

But the exercise of moral principle, in 
regard to these things, strengthens that 
principle within us, and forms a habit of 
acting from a sense of duty and in obedi- 
ence to conscience, which will naturally 
and gradually extend to all other parts of 
the conduct, and by means of which, mo- 
ral and spiritual improvement will be se- 
cured. As then, it is every man's duty to 
seek for those courses, which are best cal- 
culated to promote moral and spiritual im- 
provement, so it is every man's duty to 
practice at all times the virtue of economy. 
My fourth argument, and the last 
which I shall adduce, in proof of my po- 
sition, I draw from the fact, that the prac- 
tice of economy, is the course best calcu- 



154 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

lated to promote individual and general 
happiness. And, perhaps, here as before, 
I may bring the argument more distinctly 
before my readers, by the relation of an 
anecdote, the statement of a fact. A young 
man, employed as a clerk in a counting 
room, was cautioned, by a friend, against 
extravagance in his expenses, and especi- 
ally against running in debt for costly ap- 
parel. The young man answered, in sub- 
stance, as follows. " I do not wish to be 
continually denying myself now, in the 
hope of securing the means of future en- 
joyment. I choose to enjoy myself as I 
go along." This answer gives, I presume, 
a correct expression of the feelings, which 
pervade the hearts of many young men. 
There are in all places, and more especial- 
ly in all mercantile places, I doubt not ; 
young men, clerks and apprentices, who 
will run in d^bt for fine and fashionable 
clothing, and who will spend most of their 
scanty earnings in scenes of social amuse- 



ECONOMY. 155 

ment, because they choose to enjoy them- 
selves as they go along. To the princi- 
ple of seeking enjoyment as we go along, 
I yield my fullest^ my heartiest assent, 
while, at the same time, I would use my 
most strenuous exertions to correct the mis- 
take, in regard to the nature and sources 
of true happiness, which the remark im- 
plies, that happiness is to be sought from 
things without ourselves. It is thought 
that he, who can dress elegantly, who can 
resort to all scenes of amusement, who is 
ever in the fashion and receives much at- 
tention from those around him, must be 
the truly happy man. But this is all a 
mistake. And a few years of experience 
will teach those who have fallen into it, 
the error of their ways. True happiness 
consists in the smiles of one's own con- 
science, in the approbation of one's own 
heart, in the consciousness of having en- 
deavored to pursue the path of duty, in the 
thought that he has wronged no man, that 



156 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

no man has any reason to treasure up 
aught against him, and in the thought that 
he is seeking, and daily securing mental 
and moral improvement, and is laying the 
foundation of future character. To the 
young man, the young clerk, who is de- 
sirous of securing enjoyment as he goes 
along, I would say, be faithful to your em- 
ployer. Make his interests your own, and 
put forth the same efforts to advance them, 
that you would were you labouring solely 
for yourself. Be active in duty, economi- 
cal in your expenses, and diligent in the 
right improvement of your leisure time. 
What though you may not dress so well as 
some of your acquaintances, what though 
you may not be able to attend upon all 
social amusements, what though you may 
not receive so much attention as you could 
wish, still you have, in the pleasing reflec- 
tions which are yours, in the approval of 
your own heart, and the smiles of your 
own conscience, in the thought of the im- 



ECONOMY. 157 

provement you are making, and of the 
character you are estabhshing, and especi- 
ally in the thought of the approbation of 
Godj for which you may hope, as an unfail- 
ing source of happiness. And the prac- 
tice of economy, which can be pursued 
only by denying yourself the gratification 
of all your fancies, and extravagant de- 
sires, will especially contribute to your en- 
joyment as you go along. And I would 
say to all, both old and young, both male 
and female, that the influence of a course 
of economy, in promoting happiness, may 
be clearly seen by viewiug it in contrast 
with the opposite course. If you neglect 
this course, and attempt to gratify your ftin- 
cy, to satisfy every want, you will soon find 
that the demands will be constantly in- 
creasing, and constantly growing more 
clamorous for indulgence. And the man 
or the woman, who seeks for happiness 
in this direction will soon find that the 
search has been in vain. The gratifica- 
13 



158 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tions of to-day 5 only prepare for still greater 
and still louder demands to-morrow. There 
is no peace, no rest. Nay more, although 
you may be blessed with abundant resour- 
ces, still if you pursue this course of grat- 
ifying all your wishes, you will be actual- 
ly in want, much oftener than another, 
whose resources are small, but who practi- 
ces rigid economy, and resolute self-denial. 
There is another way in which the prac- 
tice of economy promotes individual and 
social happiness. God has so constituted 
us that there is much happiness to be en- 
joyed in the exercise of the benevolent feel- 
ings, and happiness too of the highest 
and purest kind. He, who has it in his 
power to relieve the distress, to promote 
the comfort, and to advance the intellec- 
tual and moral improvement, of a fellow 
being, has within his reach a fountain of 
exquisite, refined, elevating, heavenly hap- 
piness. Indeed, if there be any part of 
our nature, which more than another, ren- 



ECONOMY. 159 

tiers us Godlike, it is this. God's charac- 
ter is essential benevolence. He takes 
pleasure in doing good. So, by doing good, 
by the exercise of pure benevolence, we 
become like God, and are to a degree qual- 
ified for heavenly mansions. But, the 
more rigidly we practice the virtue of econ- 
omy, the better able shall we be to exer- 
cise benevolence, and thereby secure a por- 
tion of the highest happiness, which earth 
affords. To the young man, then, who 
spends a certain amount at the convivial 
club, and in social amusements, I would 
say, if you will practice economy in this 
respect, and instead thereof, will go visit 
some poor hovel, to learn and to relieve 
the distress of its inmates, you will find 
your happiness increased, in a tenfold de- 
gree. To the young lady, who is given to 
extravagance in dress, and who loads her- 
self with ornaments, I would say, if you 
will forego these needless, these foolish 
expenditures, and will go stand by the bed 



160 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

side of some poor sick sister, employing 
what you have saved by the practice of 
economy, in administering to her wants, 
you will secure to yourself a happiness, 
pure and refined, which no richness of 
dress, no dazzle of ornaments, could ever 
have secured to you. In this way, then, 
by enabling you to exercise the benevolent 
feelings of your heart, will the practice of 
economy be productive of happiness. I 
close then my fourth argument, and say 
that all who would secure the greatest pos- 
sible degree of enjoyment, which proper- 
ty can afford, as they go along, and all, 
who would experience the refined happi- 
ness of benevolent effort, should feel them- 
selves bound to practice at all times, the 
duty of economy. 

I have thus adduced four separate and 
distinct arguments, drawn from diflcrent 
considerations, but all tending to establish 
the position, that the practice of economy 
is a moral and religious duty, which all 



ECONOMY. 161 

men are^ at all times^ most solemnly bound 
to perform. I have drawn my argmnents 
from the direction of Christ to his disci- 
ples, from the generally admitted princi- 
ple of stewardship in regard to property, 
and from the facts, that the practice of this 
virtue will serve as a safe-guard against 
temptation, and sin, and will promote mo- 
ral and spiritual improvement, and increase 
individual and social happiness. Having 
as I would hope, in this way, established 
my position, I will now pass to other, and 
more general remarks upon the subject. 

And first, I will express the hope, that 
what I have said, may induce my readers 
to regard this virtue of economy in a dif- 
ferent light, from what it has been, or is 
now regarded. I say, in a different light 
from what it has been, or is now regarded. 
It is true, there is much said, at the pres- 
ent time, about the necessity of economy, 
and, with many it is undoubtedly practic- 
ed, more than it has been. But still, with 
13^ 



162 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

too many the virtue is not, even yet, held 
in honour. Its practice when not the re- 
sult of necessity, is regarded as a mark of 
meanness, as indicating something small in 
the character. I have no doubt but there 
are those, who would gladly practice econ- 
omy, were they not afraid to be known 
to practice it ; and that there are others, 
who are actually and secretly practicing 
it, while yet they are ashamed of the econ- 
omy they practice, and resort to pitiful 
shifts to prevent its being known. Let it 
be said, of a young man, that, for one 
thing at least he is distinguished, and that 
is for his economy, that he never wastes 
or squanders the smallest sum, never ex- 
pendes a cent unnecessarily or foolishly. 
Let this be said among the young gentle- 
men, among the young ladies, among the 
middle aged, who give a tone to society, 
and it would excite a laugh, at the expense 
of him, concerning whom it is said, al- 
though he may be liberal in his expenses 



ECONOMY. 168 

for self-improvement and in efforts to do 
good. He would, not indeed, before his 
face, but behind his back, be sneered at, 
and laughed about, as manifesting some- 
thing small and mean in his character. 
Perhaps there may be some reason for 
this. It may be, that we have so often 
seen what has been called economy, con- 
nected with, or merged in avarice, practic- 
ed, not by the generous-hearted and be- 
nevolent, but by the narrow-minded and 
the selfish, that we have come to look upon 
it, as nearly connected with meanness. 
But, if this virtue be practiced, upon the 
grounds upon which I have placed it, it 
may be the virtue of a noble minded, high 
souled, generous-hearted man. Nay, more. 
It will be a virtue, growing out of elevated 
views of duty, of enlarged feelings of 
philanthropy, and of a religious reverence 
for conscience and the will of God. Its 
very practice, upon the grounds upon 
which I have placed it, will imply a de- 



164 XVEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

nial of self, an abstaining from wasteful 
and extravagant expenditures^ for selfish 
indulgences, from a regard to the will of 
God, and a desire to promote the best 
good of our fellow men. May I not then 
hope, that, when regarded in this light, 
the virtue of economy will, by the rich, 
the fashionable and the genteel, be held 
in proper respect, will be treated with the 
honour which it so justly merits, that it 
will become respectable, honourable, yea 
even fashionable, in society, to be economi- 
cal? 

My second general remark upon the 
subject is this, that men are inclined to 
think that there is little need of inculcat- 
ing the practice of economy, on the 
ground of christian duty. They suppose 
that actual want, or the pressure of the 
times, and the prospect of want, are suffi- 
cient to teach the importance of this vir- 
tue, and to enforce its practice. And this 
at first view might seem to be a natural 



ECONOMY. 165 

and just conclusion. But careful observa- 
tion and close reflection, have convinced 
me, that this is a mistake. Poverty, the 
pressure of the times and the prospect of 
w^ant, do not, of themselves and necessa- 
rily, teach the importance of this virtue. 
If you will visit the poorest of the poor, 
those who only live ^ from hand to mouth,' 
as it is called, you will find that there is 
often, among them, more of waste and 
extravagance, less of forethought and a 
careful gathering up of fragments for a 
future supply, than there is, among those 
blessed with competence, or even with 
abundance. The feeling seems to be, we 
have but a scanty supply even for our pres- 
ent wants. We may as w^ell be free, lav- 
ish with what we have, and trust to Provi- 
dence, or rather to good fortune, for the 
future. It is the same under the pressure 
of the times and the prospect of want. 
Are there not, even now, some in the wide- 
spread community which is suffering 



166 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

from the pressure of the times^ who have 
become deeply involved in pecuniary em- 
barrasments, who have no prospect, no ex- 
pectation of paying their just debts, who 
are more reckless in regard to many ex- 
penses, than they were, when they were 
pursuing a course of thrift and gain and 
accumulation ? It is true, there is a diffi- 
culty in these circumstances, and as the 
laws now are, in determining which course 
duty and Christianity require. But I have 
alluded to this circumstance simply to il- 
lustrate my position, that want and the 
prospect of poverty, do not, of themselves^ 
teach economy. The feeling seems to be, 
the little we can obtain will accomplish 
comparatively nothing in meeting the 
heavy demands against us, and therefore 
we may as well spend it as we go along. I 
am then convinced, that want and the 
prospect of want do not, of themselves, 
enforce the practice of economy, so much 
as tlie fact lliat vvc arc actually gaining and 



ECONOMY. 167 

accumulating, and the prospect of con- 
tinuing to increase our gains and add to 
our accumulations. Let an individual be 
as low as he may in point of property, 
still, if he has the prospect of rising, he 
will be led to practice the most rigid econ- 
omy, that he may rise the more rapidly. 
But let the same individual be at the same 
low ebb, without the prospect of rising, 
and there will be great danger that he will 
become reckless and extravagant, unless 
he be a man of religious principle, and 
governed by a deep and pervading sense 
of duty. 

I have made these statements to illus- 
trate and enforce my remark, that we can- 
not depend upon circumstances, upon 
want, the pressure of the times, or the 
prospect and fear of poverty, to teach and 
enforce the practice of economy. It must 
be placed, where I have in this chapter, 
attempted to place it, on the ground of du- 
ty. We must learn ourselves, and incul- 



168 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

cate upon one another, and teach our chil- 
dren, the obHgations, which we are all un- 
der to practice this virtue, at all times, and 
under all circumstances of pecuniary con- 
dition. 

And I may here add, by way of apply- 
ing my remark to the present times, that 
we are now suffering by a deep and wide- 
spread depression in pecuniary matters ; 
we are expressing to each other the wish 
and the hope of a return of better times. 
But, at the same time, I have heard or 
seen but little, which leads me to think 
that we have a right view of the way, in 
which better times are to be brought 
about. We are looking away from our- 
selves, for a remedy for the evils which 
are upon us, when, as it seems to me, the 
true remedy lies within ourselves, and de- 
pends more upon our own rightly-directed 
efforts, than upon any changes abroad. 
The spirit of speculation, the anxiety for 
sudden and great gains, a few years since 



ECONOMY. 169 

SO prevalent, seems to have left a deep and 
Viride-spread infection in the community. 
Instead of attempting to retrieve our cir- 
cumstances by a return to diligent labour, 
and an economical saving of small gains, 
we are waiting for some turn in the times, 
by which we can again enjoy an opportu- 
nity of securing great and sudden accu- 
mulations. We seem to be in the condi- 
tion of one, who has adventured in a lot- 
tery and lost his adventure. He has, by 
the act, become infected with the spirit of 
saving. Instead of attempting to retrieve 
his loss, by diligence and economy, he ad- 
ventures again, and watches, in feverish 
anxiety, for a more fortunate turn of the 
wheel. It seems to me that the only way, 
in which we can expect to bring about 
better times, is by a return to the good old 
paths of diligence, in labour, and an eco- 
nomical saving of small gains ; that this is 
the only way in which individuals can re- 
trieve their losses and place their business 
14 



170 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

affairs above the fluctuations resulting from 
foreign convulsions, or the changes of pol- 
icy in our own government. Let us then 
place labour and economy where they 
rightly belong, on the ground of christian 
duty. Let us practice them ourselves, 
and give all due respect and honour to the 
practice of them in others. 

My third and last general remark upon 
the subject is this, that men are inclined to 
regard a partial practice of this virtue as 
all that is required, and to allow this partial 
practice of economy, in some particulars, 
to blind their eyes to waste and extrava- 
gance in other particulars. I have seldom 
seen the individual who was not economi- 
cal in some things, in some items of ex- 
penditures. And I have, as seldom, found 
the individual who was economical in all 
his expenses. Some care but little about 
the gratifications of the appetite, and are 
economical in the expenses of the table, 
while they arc extravagant in the item of 



ECONOMY. 171 

dress. Others will be economical in regard 
to dress, and extravagant in regard to food. 
And, in this way, we are all, I presume, 
economical in regard to indulgences, for 
which we care but little. And we are all, 
more extravagant than we need be, I 
doubt not, in regard to those indulgences 
to which we are strongly attached. An 
opportunity is afforded to gratify our fa- 
vorite inclinations. We feel that to yield 
would involve something of extravagance, 
but we console ourselves with the thought, 
that, in some other respect, we have been 
particularly and carefully prudent, and 
that, on this account, we may afford this 
favorite indulgence. In this way we de- 
ceive ourselves. We are not practising 
true economy. True economy does not 
consist in abstaining from those indulgen- 
ces to which we are not strongly inclined, 
in order to secure the means of gratifica- 
tion in others to which we are inclined. 
True economy consists in denying our- 



172 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

selves in regard to all unnecessary and use- 
less indulgences, as a matter of duty, and 
in order to secure the means of future sup- 
port, of paying our honest dues, and of 
beneficence to our fellow men. In at- 
tempting to practice economy, then, let 
each one carefully examine himself and 
discover to what indulgences he is most 
strongly inclined, and then be especially 
careful to bring his sense of duty, his prin- 
ciples of economy, to bear upon these. 
And yet there seems to be a propriety in 
retrenching some expenses that we may 
afford to incur others. But it should be 
on the ground that those, in which w^e 
retrench, are the less important, and those, 
which we incur, are the more important. 
That mother, who alters and repairs a half 
worn dress, either for herself or her child, 
rather than incur the expense of a new 
one, that she may have the means of fur- 
nishing her child with books, or of securing 
good instruction, seems to be pursuing a 



ECONOMY. 173 

proper course, one consistent with duty 
and economy. She is practising, and 
teaching her child to practice, self-denial 
in regard to present gratifications, in order 
to secure future and permanent good. 
That husband and father, who retrenches 
in the expenses of the table, that he may 
retain the weekly visits of a religious pa- 
per to his house, for the edification of his 
family, is pursuing a course which is con- 
sistent with duty and economy. For he 
is practising self-denial in regurd to the in- 
dulgence of the body, in order to secure 
food for the soul, the growth and nourish- 
ment of the spiritual nature. And I may 
repeat generally, that, in this way, there 
may be a propriety in retrenching some 
expenses, that we may aflford to incur oth- 
ers, provided we act from principle and 
under a sense of duty, provided we re- 
trench in regard to less important, that we 
may be able to promote the more impor- 
tant interests of our natures. I have thus, 
14# 



174 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

after having established, as I would hope, 
the position that the practice of economy 
is to be regarded as a religious duty, bind- 
ing upon all men, at all times, suggested 
that this virtue is not even now held in that 
honour and treated with that respect in 
which it should be held, with which it 
should be treated ; that we cannot depend 
upon circumstances to enforce the prac- 
tise, but must place it upon the ground of 
duty, and that we are all, in our attempts 
to practise it, liable to self-deception, and 
ought therefore to be on our guard, against 
our favorite indulgences. 

My readers may, perhaps, have expec- 
ted a distinct exposition of the nature of 
economy, and a detailed description of the 
modes of its application to all our various 
expenses. Such an exposition and de- 
scription would be out of place in a work 
like this, could they have been given. But 
there would be difficulty in the very at- 
tempt. For, its modes of application, 



ECONOMY. 175 

change with the differing circumstances of 
those who practice it. What would be 
true economy m some circumstances, 
might be the height of extravagance in 
other and different circumstances. Each 
one, then, must, in practice, judge for him- 
self, and from his own circumstances. But, 
in addition to the impropriety of the at- 
tempt in a work like this, and its inherent 
difficulty, I have felt that there could be 
no need of such an exposition and descrip- 
tion. I have felt that, if I could but im- 
press upon any one mind, the conviction 
that the practice of economy is a religious, 
a christian duty, he might be safely left to 
his own good judgment to find out and 
adopt those modes of performing this du- 
ty, which would be most in accordance 
with his peculiar circumstances. And es- 
pecially have I felt that, if in connection 
with this conviction, my readers would 
dwell upon'the hint of our Saviour, given 
in his direction to gather up the fragments, 



176 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

which contains the germ of the whole sci- 
ence of economy, and would from princi- 
ple and under a sense of duty, honestly 
and faithfully endeavor to carry out that 
hint into all their practice, there could be 
no danger that they would be wasteful or 
extravagant in their expenditures. I would 
then say, in conclusion, that the impor- 
tance of the subject, has been magnified 
in my own estimation as I have in writing 
dwelt upon it, in continued meditation. 
I have seen, as I had never seen before, 
the solemn nature of the obligations that 
are upon us to practice this virtue. I have 
traced, in what I have stated, and in many 
things which I have not had time to state, 
as I had never traced before, the various 
bearings of this virtue, upon individual and 
social happiness, and upon moral and spir- 
itual improvement. And I would hope 
and pray, that, whether what I have said 
shall make any impression upon the minds 
or produce any effect upon the conduct of 



ECONOMY. 177 

my readers^ or not, the time spent in wri- 
ting upon the subject may not be lost up- 
on myself. 

And I would urge upon every one an ear- 
nest attention to this subject. It is with 
this as with every other subject. The more 
it is dwelt upon in careful thought, the 
more fully will its importance be felt. We 
are too apt to regard the subject of econo- 
my as of importance only in its relation 
to worldly prosperity and as of no conse- 
quence in its bearing upon christian char- 
acter. But it is not so. The want of 
economy not only mars the beauty and 
destroys the symetry but sometimes entire- 
ly subverts the very foundations of chris- 
tian character. 



CHAP. V. 



HONESTY. 



I WOULD ask the attention of my read- 
ers^ in this chapter, to some thoughts up- 
on the subject of honesty. At first view, 
it may seem to be an old hackneyed topic, 
a very plain and simple subject. But up- 
on looking a little more carefully into the 
subject, it will be found that there are con- 
tinually springing up, in the various trans- 
actions of business, cases, which may well 
excite a doubt, even in the mind of the 
most scrupulous and conscientious, and 
that, therefore, it may be hoped that the 
discussion will not be without interest, 
will not be wholly unprofitable. 

In entering upon this discussion, I would 
observe, by way of preliminary remark, 
that honesty is to be regarded, not merely 



HONESTY. 179 

as a very important moral virtue^ and one 
which may, with propriety be discussed, in 
a week-day lecture upon the moral con- 
duct. No, it is to be regarded as a trait 
of christian character, urged in the Gospel, 
and worthy of being made the subject of 
a Sabbath sermon, in every truly evangel- 
ical system of preaching. Let me direct 
your thoughts, for a moment, to some pas- 
sages of scripture in which this practice 
of honesty is spoken of. There is the 
apostolic injunction, in which he expressly 
exhorts men to provide things honest in 
the sight of all men. At the close of the 
second Epistle to the Corinthians, the same 
apostle says, now I pray to God that ye do 
no evil, but that ye should do that which is 
honest. In the fourth chapter of the Epis- 
tle to the Philippians, the apostle gives this 
exhortation. Finally brethren, whatsoev- 
er things are true, whatsoever things are 
honest &c., if there be any virtue, and if 
there be any praise, think on these things^ 



180 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

In the second chapter of the first Epistle 
to Timothy^ Paul says, I exhort that pray- 
ers be made for all men, (fcc, that we may 
lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all God- 
liness and honesty. In the times of the 
Prophets, the Almighty seems to have had 
occasion to rebuke the propensity there is 
in men to substitute religious exercises and 
services for honest dealing. For by the 
Prophet Micah, he says, by way of expos- 
tulation with his people, " Wherewith 
shall I come before the Lord ? shall I come 
before him with burnt offerings? Will 
the Lord be pleased with thousands of 
rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil ? 
Shall I give my first born for my transgres- 
sions, the fruit of my body for the sin of 
my soul ? He hath shewed thee, O man 
what is good, and what doth the Lord re- 
quire of thee but to deal justly, to love 
mercy ,and to walk humbly before thy God.' 
In the Epistle to the Thessalonians, we 
find an apostolic exhortation to the same 



HONESTY. 181 

effect, " that no man go beyond and de- 
fraud his brother in any matter, because 
that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as 
we have also forwarned you and testified. 
Honesty then, plain, strait-forward hon- 
esty in dealing, is to be regarded, if we 
may judge by the frequency and earnest- 
ness with which it is inculcated in the 
scriptures, as a trait of christian character, 
a manifestation of piety, an indication of 
a heart right with God, to be urged upon 
gospel principles, and enforced by gospel 
sanctions. 

But Christianity, not only inculcates and 
urges the practice of honesty, it also, and 
in the express words of our Saviour, lays 
down a sound and fundamental principle ^ 
of honest dealing. ^^ Therefore," says 
our Saviour, in '^ all thi7igs whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them, for this is the law and 
the Prophets ;" in other words, this is the 
general spirit of God's revealed instruc- 
15 



182 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tions, in all the various forms in which they 
have been given. 

Here is the distinct principle of Gospel 
honesty. He, who has experienced the 
power of religion upon his heart, who is 
earnestly striving to lead a truly religious 
life, and who is conscientiously endeavor- 
ing to act out, in his various dealings, the 
Gospel principle of honesty, will strive to 
do, in all things, to others as he would 
have others do to him. Such is the prin- 
ciple. It is a truly comprehensive and all- 
embracing principle, and yet it is as clearly 
and definitely stated as a general principle 
well can be. 

And here comes the important, the es- 
sential question, in this whole discussion. 
Was this principle intended, by our Sa- 
viour, to be applied, by his followers to the 
regulation of their conduct, in all the vari- 
ous transactions of their ordinary business, 
and can these various transactions of busi- 
ness be successfully conducted, where this 



HONESTY. 183 

principle is faithfully applied ? Suppose 
that a young man enters upon mercantile 
pursuits^ and does it with the settled de- 
termination, that, in all he may say and in 
all he may do, that, in all his intercourse 
with others and in all his business transac- 
tions, he will faithfully and conscientious- 
ly abide by this principle, will, in all cases, 
do to others as he would have others do to 
him ; can that young man, if he adhere to 
his principles, succeed in business ? That 
is the important, the essential question in 
the case. It is a question applicable to all 
the various pursuits, in which men have 
dealings wdth one another. 

I know there are some, who will say, 
distinctly and unhesitatingly, that men 
cannot succeed, while acting upon this 
principle. And especially, in all the intri- 
cacies of mercantile transactions, there are 
some, merchants themselves, who will say, 
frankly, that, if a man is determined to 
act upon this principle, he may as well 



184 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

give up the business, he cannot succeed. 
They will indeed speak highly of the beau- 
ty of this principle. It is beautiful in the- 
ory, say they, but it is too elevated and 
refined for every-day practice, or at least, 
for practice in the present state of society. 
This remark is well calculated to startle 
any one, who has a deep and heartfelt re- 
gard for the gospel. But it is in perfect 
accordance with the opinions in regard to 
gospel requirements, upon other subjects, 
which are often expressed. If you ex- 
press your disapprobation of the practice 
of duelling, and urge the gospel principle 
of forgiveness of insult and injury, the 
answer is, this is all very fine in theory, 
but it is too elevated, too refined for prac- 
tice. It seems to be thought, that, if you 
will express warm approbation of the gos- 
pel principle of forgiveness of injuries, it 
will atone for your practicing upon the 
principle of revenging insults. And so, in 
this it seems to be thought, that, if you 



HONESTY. 185 

admire the beauty of the principle in the- 
ory, you may be permitted on that account, 
to go out and pursue a course of practice 
the very opposite. 

We sometimes speak of skepticism and 
infidehty, and express our fears at its 
alarming and increasing prevalence. But 
to me this want of faith in the practical 
principles of the Gospel, is the most 
alarming form which skepticism or infidel- 
ity has ever assumed. A want of faith I 
say in the practical principles of the Gos- 
pel. By this I mean that men do not be- 
lieve that the practical principles of the Gos- 
pel are adapted to the ordinary business 
transactions of society, or are calculated to 
promote the best interests, and the greatest 
good, of either individuals or the commu- 
nity. They profess to believe these prin- 
ciples to be beautiful in themselves, beau- 
tiful in theory, and admit that, if they 
could he carried out into practice^ they 
would produce a state of society on earth, 
15=^ 



186 _ WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

far exceeding most men's conceptions of 
heavenly purity. Still, they content 
themselves with this avowed admiration, 
and neglect the endeavor to carry them 
out into their own, individual, every-day 
practice. They go on, manifesting an 
outward respect for the gospel and its in- 
structions, while they regulate their con- 
duct by the maxims and practices of the 
world. This, I have said, is the most 
dangerous form of skepticism and infideli- 
ty. It encrusts the soul with indifference, 
hardens the heart, and puts the conscience 
asleep. Those who adopt these views 
will listen to the most earnest appeals upon 
these subjects, and admire the spirit and 
fervor of him, who makes them, while 
they console themselves, under acknowl- 
edged deficiencies and deviations, with the 
thought that the clergyman knows nothing 
of the difficulty of applying these princi- 
ples in practice ; that they are appropriate 
to the pulpit, the house of God and the 



HONESTY. 187 

sabbath^ but that they are all unfit for the 
market place^, the store, the counting 
room/ or the work shop. I enter then my 
solemn protest against this most danger- 
ous form of skepticism and infidelity. If 
our religion be of any value, it is especially 
valuable, because it is adapted to the regu- 
lation of men's conduct in their week-day 
business transactions. It was intended not 
merely to fit souls for a state of purity and 
holiness, and consequent happiness beyond 
the grave, but to produce a state of socie- 
ty on earth, marked by its purity and 
peace, by its uprightness, honesty, and hol- 
iness. Believing this, I contend that the 
principle of Gospel honesty to which I 
have alluded, the principle of doing to oth- 
ers as we would have others do to us, is the 
best possible principle of honesty, which 
men can adopt in their common transac- 
tions of business. 

To this important question, then, wheth- 
er this principle of Gospel honesty was 



188 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

intended to be carried out to the regula- 
tion of the details of men's ordinary trans- 
actions with each other, whether it can be 
so carried out, and whether, if so carried 
out and constantly adhered to, it will pro- 
mote the prosperity, the success, the best 
good of him who thus carries it out and 
adheres to it ? To this question, I answer 
that, if it was not intended to be thus ap- 
plied to every-day and business affairs, it 
has no meaning or force at all. If you 
can shew any one case, in which it is prop- 
er for men knowingly and wilfully to dis- 
regard this principle, then I will undertake 
to shew that, in no instance, is it proper 
to regard it. I answer, still further, that 
this principle can be carried out into prac- 
tice; that, although the community may 
have generally most sadly and most widely 
departed from it in the spirit of their deal- 
ings with each other, still, if an individual 
will firmly adopt and perseveringly ad- 
here to itj he will find no difficulties, which 



HONESTY. 189 

he will not be enabled, by the aid of prayer! 
in the exercise of faith, and of unwaver- 
ing confidence in God, in his veracity and 
in his goodness, easily to overcome. To 
this question I answer, still further, and 
finally, that if this principle be adopted 
and adhered to, it will promote all reasona- 
ble prosperity in business, will secure the 
respect of all around, and inward peace 
and happiness. I would say to every man 
of business, that, if he will enter his place 
of business, whatever it may be, with the 
determination there to shew himself the 
christian, with the determination that he 
will, in all cases, adhere to this Gospel 
principle of honesty, and will persevere 
in this determination, he will find, that it 
will secure the confidence and the respect 
of those with whom he may deal, and will 
add tenfold to the enjoyment of what 
he may gain. For Godhness hath the 
promise of the life that now is, as well as of 
that which is to come. But let him adopt 



190 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

this principle with reasonable expectations, 
as to its influence. He may perhaps, by 
his adherance to it, be occasionally preven- 
ted from securing accumulations, which 
he might otherwise have gained. He may 
not acquire riches so rapidly as he other- 
wise would, he may forego many opportu- 
nities of taking advantage of his neigh- 
bor, from a regard to his principles. But 
let him look at I us own peace of mind, 
at the moral complexion of his character, 
at the state of his spiritual affections, and 
he will see that he has gained more, in 
these, than he has lost of pecuniary profit. 
Nay more. Let him look, without him- 
self, at the confidence which is reposed in 
him even by those, who will not adopt his 
principles, at the real and heart-felt respect 
which is manifested towards him, by all of 
every character, and he will enjoy an in- 
ward experience of the truth of our Sav- 
iour's declaration, '' Verily I say unto you 
there is no man who hath left house or 



HONESTY. 191 

land or brethren for the kingdom of God's 
sake, who shall not receive manifold more 
' in this present time/' that is, manifold 
more of the very enjoyments, which he 
had hoped to secure by these means, peace 
and happiness, confidence and respect, 
even in this present world, and this inward 
experience will be to him an earnest, a 
foretaste of that life and spiritual joy ev- 
erlasting, for which he may hope in the 
world to come. 

I have said more upon this point, and 
have spoken more seriously and earnestly, 
than I otherwise should have done, because 
from my own observation, from what I 
have myself seen and heard, I fear that 
many do not intend to practice upon this 
principle. I appeal to my readers and ask, 
if it be not sometimes, nay, often the case, 
that the man of business d9es not sincerely 
and conscientiously intend to make this 
principle the guide of his conduct, in all 
his business transactions ; that the warm 



192 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

political partizan does not, sincerely, and 
conscientiously, intend to make it the 
guide of all his political efforts. I ask, 
if it is not too often the case, that the 
young man, who commences a business 
life, does not commence with a resolute 
determination to do, in all cases, as he 
would be done by ? Indeed, I go further 
and ask, if our lads, who are placed, as 
clerks and apprentices in your stores, have 
this principle inculcated as that, on which 
they should ever act, and witness, in your 
own conduct, an exemplification of the 
proper application of this principle ? On 
the contrary, does not the incidental con- 
versation to which they may listen, do not 
the practices which they may witness, and 
the maxims which are laid down as their 
guide, teach them to look to the principles 
which prevail among honourable men of 
business, rather than to the Gospel, for 
guidance in their business transactions ? 
Are they not taught to be honourable in 



HONESTY. 193 

the eyes of the community, rather than to 
be conscientious christians in the sight of 
God, and this too, in a christian land, un- 
der the hght of christian instructions, in 
the enjoyment of christian institutions, and 
even by those, who would be regarded as 
the friends of Christianity. 

It is true that the principles, by which 
honourable men of business are governed, 
are in many respects good. I sincerely 
believe that they are already much im- 
proved, and that they are destined to be 
still further improved, by the influence of 
Christianity. But they are variable. In 
one age of the world piracy was honor- 
able. A man might regulate his conduct 
by the maxims of honourable men of bus- 
iness, and be a pirate. And even since 
the light of Christianity dawned upon the 
world, the slave trade was honourable. A 
man might abide by the maxims of hon-^ 
ourable men of business, and be a slave- 
dealer. There is nothing fixed, then, in 
16 



194 WEEK-BAY RELIGION. 

these principles. They may be in accor- 
dance with, or at variance from the prin- 
ciples of the Gospel. Then, too, they ac- 
custom one to look in the wrong direction 
for the standard of correct conduct ; to 
look to the ever varying practices and 
opinions of his fellow men, and to the es- 
timation in which he is held by them, and 
not to the immutable principles of recti- 
tude, to the revealed will of God, and to 
the approbation of his own conscience 
and of that God, who is the judge of all. 
They accustom one to ask, in regard to his 
business transactions, how his conduct may 
appear, and not in what state his own soul 
may be. Is it not then true, that the Gos- 
pel principle is not only the best principle 
of business honesty which can be adopted, 
but the only principle which is universal 
in its application and fixed in its operations? 
I repeat, I have said more upon this 
point than I otherwise should have done, 
because, in the first place, I have feared 



HONESTY. 195 

that men do not seriously and conscien- 
tiously intend to practice upon this princi- 
ple, and because, in the second place, un- 
less this principle be adopted, unless it be 
established, that it was intended to be car- 
ried into practice in business transactions, 
it would be utterly useless to say any thing 
further upon the subject. We have no 
common ground to stand upon, no fixed 
point from which to start. What was hon- 
ourable yesterday, may not be so to-day ; 
what is honourable to-day, may not be so 
to-morrow. And if we determine the ques- 
tion, as to what is honourable, it will be 
but a matter of opinion, resting on no 
authority, even when most firmly fixed, 
and constantly liable to change. Let this 
then be regarded as the fixed and unalter- 
able law of Christianity, that, in all the va- 
rious intercourse of men with one anoth- 
er, in all their traffic and barter, in all 
their bargains and trade, they are to do as 
they would be done by. I have known 



196 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the conscientious young man, who left the 
store in which he was placed, and renounc- 
ed the thoughts of continuing in mercan- 
tile pursuits, because he was told that he 
could not succeed, if he adhered to this 
principle. And I fully believe that every 
one, who is possessed of the christian spirit, 
who is governed by christian principles, 
would at once renounce any pursuit, in 
which he might be engaged, just as soon 
as convinced that he could not expect to 
succeed in it, without disregarding or vio- 
lating this fundamental principle of Gos- 
pel honesty. Suppose you, that he, who 
intends to be a follower of Jesus, will con- 
tinue on, day after day, and year after 
year, in a pursuit, in which he feels that he 
must disregard the principles of the Gos- 
pel ? Most surely not. For myself, I do 
not believe that business transactions can- 
not be conducted upon Gospel principles. 
I believe that there may be, that there are 
now, and that there have been in times 



HONESTY. 197 

past;, Merchants, Lawyers and men in all 
the various pursuits of business^, who have 
acted upon this principle, and who, under 
the guidance of this principle, have been 
in as religious and pious frame of soul, as 
truly conscious of the presence of God, 
and as mindful of their accountability to 
him, while making a bargain or engaged 
in other transactions of business, as while 
offering a prayer. I believe the assertion, 
that business transactions cannot be con- 
ducted upon Gospel principles, to be 
a libel upon business life, uttered by 
those, who understand neither the true 
principles of the Gospel, nor the best 
modes of business. And, I beg of all, 
especially of all young men, who are now 
forming their opinions and establishing 
their principles for a life of business, to 
spurn every such thought. I would say 
to those who make this assertion, will you 
tell us, yourselves, that the whole process 

of business in which you are engaged, is 
16# 



198 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

one continued succession of knavery ^ cheat- 
ing and fraud ? will you say to a young 
man, ^' you cannot be a business man and 
remain an honest man ?" Will you say 
all this, and still expect to enjoy, yourselves, 
the confidence and the respect of those, 
to whom you say it. It is not so. There 
are honest and christian men in the vari- 
ous walks of business ; we have known 
them, we have seen them tried, we have 
had the proof of their honesty before us. 
If then I were speaking to a young man, 
and an intimate friend, just about to en- 
ter upon a life of business, I would say to 
him, '^ you should enter upon this course 
of life, with the firm conviction that the 
Gospel principle is the principle, by which 
you should be guided, that, on no occasion, 
are you to allow even the thought of a de- 
parture from that principle, or the wish to 
depart from it, to rest for a moment in 
your mind." Therefore, I should further 
say to him, ^^your first business is with your 



HONESTY. 199 

own soul. You are to see to it, that your 
internal man, if I may so speak, is in a 
truly honest frame. You are to ask, in 
regard to any business transaction, in which 
you may engage, whether you can say to 
yourself, before your own conscience, and 
before that God whose eye penetrates the 
inner man, and takes cognizance of all its 
various states, whether, in this view, you 
can say to yourself, without fear of con- 
tradiction from within or from above, that 
you have honestly endeavoured to do as 
in an exchange of circumstances you would 
wish to be done by ?" This is the first step, 
to deal faithfully with yourselves, with 
your own souls, your own consciences ; 
to know whether, in the inmost recesses 
of your souls, there is honesty of purpose 
and intention. 

The next step is to endeavour to acquire 
a soundness of judgment in carrying this 
principle out into practice. You will no- 
tice that this is not a specific rule, in re- 



200 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

gard to particular practices;, but a general 
principle, and that like every other gen- 
eral principle, it is to be applied to partic- 
ular cases, in every variety of pursuit and 
in every peculiarity^ of circumstances, in 
the exercise of the best judgment of the 
individual, who makes the application. 
You and I may be placed in precisely sim- 
ilar circumstances in regard to a third per- 
son ; we may both conscientiously endeav- 
our to treat him, as in an exchange of cir- 
cumstances we should wish him to treat 
us, and yet we may pursue different cours- 
es of conduct. For example, we may be 
blessed with wealth, and there may be a 
poor neighbour by our side. You may 
say, were I in that man's situation, were I 
poor beside a wealthy neighbor, I should 
wish him to divide his wealth with me, to 
give me the half and make me indepen- 
dent, and therefore, upon the Gospel prin- 
ciple of doing as I would be done by, I 
will give my poor neighbor the half of my 



HONESTY. 201 

property and make him independent. This 
might be the way in which your judgment 
would lead you to act out this Gospel prin- 
ciple. I might say, were I in that man's 
place, a poor man by the side of a rich 
neighbor, I should wish to be left to the 
free exercise of my own powers, to the 
opportunity of supporting myself and bet- 
tering my condition by my own efforts, in- 
dependent of the charitable aid of my rich 
neighbour. I should be glad indeed 
to enjoy his respect, and to feel that, 
in misfortune or distress, I might be se- 
cure of his warm-hearted sympathy. This 
is all I should wish, from the settled con- 
viction that this would promote my happi- 
ness more fully, than to receive, as the free 
gift of my neighbour, an independence 
which I had not myself earned. Enter- 
taining these views, I should act in accor- 
dance with them, in my treatment of my 
neighbour. Here you perceive we might 
be both acting out the Gospel principle. 



202 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

we might both have dealt faithfully with 
our own souls^ and our own consciences, 
and there might be equal honesty of in- 
tention and purpose, in the inmost recess- 
es of both our hearts, and yet we should 
apply the principle to this specific case, un- 
der very different degrees of soundness in 
judgment. 

You will learn, from these illustrations, 
that the application of this Gospel princi- 
ple of justice to particular and specific 
cases, is to be made in the exercise of sound 
judgment. It is not to be made, under 
the impulses of a narrow-minded selfish- 
ness. " A man may, unreasonably, and 
selfishly, wish that another should sell him 
a piece of goods at half its value." Does 
it follow that he himself ought to sell on 
those terms ? Most surely not. The er- 
ror here is in the indulgence of the wish. 
He should endeavour to banish this un- 
reasonable and selfish wish, and be willing 
that all who seek for a support, by way 



HONESTY. 203 

of trade, should receive a reasonable profit 
upon their sales. If his feelings in this 
respect are correct, he will find no difl[i- 
culty in applying the rule. On the other 
hand, the application of this general prin- 
ciple to particular cases is not to be made 
under the suggestions of a generous tem- 
per. ^^ If a Merchant has a large store of 
provisions, in time of scarcity, would it 
not be a very noble and praiseworthy thing, 
it is said, for him to dispose of his stock 
without enhancing the price." The an- 
swer is that it would be a noble and gener- 
ous deed. But would it be just and right; 
would it do good to others ; would it be 
in accordance with the Gospel principle ? 
In order to answer this question, the case 
must be carefully examined. " Suppose 
he sell in large quantities, selling at a low 
rate. It will avail nothing. The subordi- 
nate dealers will raise the price. Suppose 
he attempt to sell to each family, what it 
needs. Any one of them may take the 



204 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

article to the next warehouse and dispose 
of it at the enhanced price, and in all 
probability many would do this, that with 
the receipts they might obtain a larger 
amount of cheaper articles." But, still 
further, looking at the subject in its gene- 
ral bearings, ought he to wish that, were 
he destitute, and his neighbour blessed 
with a" large supply, he might participate 
in that supply without giving an enhanced 
price ? To me it seems that he ought not 
to wish this, and that his first step, in the 
application of the principle, is to acquire 
just notions and reasonable wishes upon 
the subject, and then he will find but lit- 
tle difficulty in making the application. 
No specific directions then can be given, 
in regard to the application of this princi- 
ple of Gospel honesty, to particular acts. 
The mode, in which it is to be applied, 
is to be determined by each individual, 
and to be determined too, in each partic- 
ular case wliich mav occur. The circum- 



HONESTY. 205 

stances of every case will vary from the 
circumstances of every other case^ and no 
one but the individual, w^ho is placed in 
the midst of these circumstances, and 
who can look calmly at them, and exer- 
cise a sound judgment in regard to them, 
can form a correct opinion. I should say 
then, to my young friend, you are first to 
deal with your own soul, to see that, in 
its inmost recesses, there is honesty of pur- 
pose. But when you have done this, you 
are to seek for large and broad and just 
views upon the whole subject. Conscience, 
enlightened conscience ; Scripture, ration- 
ally explained and applied, and right feel- 
ing, are to govern you in applying your 
general principles to particular cases ; but 
you are to exercise this government under 
the guidance of sound reason. All these, 
broad and just views, an enlightened con- 
science, a clear understanding of the true 
application of scripture, you should seek, 
in order to be able to make the appHcation 
17 



206 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

in any particular case, in the exercise of a 
sound judgment. But, I repeat, the es- 
sential point is to be faithful with yourself, 
with your own soul. For, if there be the 
distinct intention, the settled purpose, the 
sincere and conscientious endeavour, to 
do in all things as you would be done by, 
there will be no great difficulty in applying 
the principle ; you may sometimes err, you 
may sometimes be deceived, but in most 
cases, you will find no difficulty. In re- 
gard to this subject, especially, will the 
proverb hold good, that ^' where there is 
a will there is a way," that, where there is 
a fixed principle of honesty in the soul, 
there will be but little difficulty in discov- 
ering the ways of honest dealing in busi- 
ness transactions. 

I have thus endeavored to state and il- 
lustrate the Gospel principle of honesty, 
to urge the importance and the practabil- 
ity of its application to the common busi- 
ness of life, and to point out the impor- 



HONESTY. 207 

tance of making the application in faith- 
fulness to one's own soul, and in the ex- 
ercise of a sound judgment. The way is 
now prepared to look at some of the prev- 
alent practices of the community, and com- 
pare them with this Gospel principle of 
honesty. 

And first, let us look at the simplest and 
most obvious case which is presented. The 
simple case of a contract in buying and 
selling. Upon this point two questions 
are to be settled. First, what are we to 
understand by a contract, a bargain, in the 
common transactions of buying' and sell- 
ing? And, second, what is to regulate 
price? In regard to the first of these ques- 
tions, we ask if the business of buying 
and selling is a mere game, at which men 
play for a stake ? Is it a mere contest of 
men's wits to see which will overreach the 
other ? Or is it an exchange of property, 
on the grounds of truth-telling and fair 
dealing, and for the mutual advantage of 



208 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

those who trade ? This last to me seems 
to be the true and christian view of the 
business of buying and selUng. A con- 
tract, then, to be pronounced honest by 
the conscience, which enjoys christian hght, 
and at the bar of God, must have for its 
basis the condition of mutual advantage, 
to both parties. Its very essence must 
consist in a supposed equivalency. It is 
true that in the business of buying and 
selling, it is expedient and necessary that 
men should be put to the use of their sens- 
es, and their faculties. There is a duty, 
which devolves upon the seller, and a du- 
ty which devolves upon the buyer. And 
these are entirely distinct the one from the 
other. The seller is not called upon to en- 
ter into all the circumstances of the buyer, 
and to counsel and.advise him,any more than 
the buyer is to do the same with the seller. 
It is the duty of the seller, to set forth his 
goods, and recommend them, as well as he 
may be able, in trutli and fair dealing. He 



HONESTY. 209 

is to set forth and recommend his goods, 
provided he does not, in this, conceal some 
latent defect, provided he recommend them 
as nothing different from what they really 
are, provided he ^^go not beyond, in any 
matter, and defraud his brother.'' This is 
the duty of the seller. It is the duty of 
the buyer to examine the goods he vv^ould 
purchase, to exercise his own judgment in 
regard to their adaptation to his purpose, 
to bring to his aid some knowledge of the 
general value of the article, and of the 
prevailing market price. A trade conduct- 
ed in this way, may, as I conceive, be an 
exercise of gospel honesty, and for the 
mutual advantage of both parties. One 
has money in his pocket, but he has no 
flour in his house ; another has flour in his 
store, which he would be glad to exchange 
for the money. He makes a fair repre- 
sentation of the article, puts on a reason- 
able profit, and the trade is closed. This 

is all fair dealing. The one has received 
17# 



210 WEEK-DAY RELIGION, 

flouF; whichj in the circumstances in which 
he is placed^ is of more value to him than 
money, and the other has received money^ 
which, at the profit he has secured, is of 
more value to him than the flour. Such is 
a contract, based on the fact of its being 
of mutual advantage to both parties, and 
having for its essential principle the cir- 
cumstance that each has given to the 
other an equivalent for what he has receiv- 
ed from him. 

And now comes the question as to the 
price. In regard to this we may ask if there 
be any absolute and abstract value in the 
difierent articles of merchandize, which is 
fixed and may be easily ascertained ? On 
the contrary, does not the particular value, 
at any specified time, depend upon the 
proportion of the supply to the demand ? 
If, at any time, a particular class of arti- 
cles is scarce, the demand is great, in com- 
parison with the supply, and they will nat- 
urally rise in price. Their value, in com- 



HONESTY. 211 

parison with other things, is increased. In 
such a case, it is proper that an individual 
should ask a higher price, although he may 
have bought w^hen the supply was large, 
the demand small. The question then in 
regard to price, is, in ordinary cases, de- 
termined for the seller, not by himself, not 
by the purchaser, but by the circumstances 
of the case, and the general voice of the 
community. In the whole course of ordi- 
nary buying and selhng, the case seems to 
be plain, and the way direct and straight 
forward. 

And yet, even in regard to this, there 
are some common practices, which ought 
not to be as they are. An English goods' 
merchant, for example, has an asking, and 
a receiving price. Now, if I enter your 
store, and ask the price of broadcloth, I 
suppose that, if you are practising upon 
the christian principle of honesty, you will 
tell me what you think the article, in the 
present state of the market, worth. It is 



212 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tacitly implied,, yea^ tacitly promised, in 
the general principles of fair dealing, that 
you will do this. But upon this principle, 
of having two prices, if a man comes into 
your store with confidence in you, and ig- 
norant of the market price of the article, 
and you sell to him at your asking price, 
he has reason to think that you have not 
dealt honestly by him. It is true, that in 
most cases, the purchaser would inform 
himself, and would not be injured by your 
coufse. But still, I would put the ques- 
tion to yourselves, and ask if this course 
does not inflict an injury upon your own 
souls, if it does not weaken the tender- 
ness of your consciences, and cause you, 
in many instances, to violate the principle 
of doing as you would be done by ? I am 
aware, that, in this case the merchant is 
not wholly in fault. The blame must be 
divided between him and his customers. 
It sometimes happens that a lady, when 
she goes a shopping, leaves her conscience 



HONESTY. 213 

and her christian principle of doing as she 
would be done by, at home, and forgets 
that the man with whom she trades must 
obtain a support for himself and it may be 
for a family, from the profits of what he 
may sell. Her only object seems to be to 
cheapen, until she can obtain an article 
for a little less than what she herself re- 
gards as its market value. And it is to 
meet this class of customers, that the prin- 
ciple is adopted. It is thought necessary. 
I do not believe it to be so. I believe that, 
if a man will be careful in his purchases 
to obtain good articles at the cheapest pos- 
sible market, and will put upon them a 
fair and reasonable advance, and have his 
asking and receiving price the same, he 
will soon enjoy the confidence of the 
community, and will secure a reasonable 
share of custom. I have known some in- 
stances, in which this has been done, with- 
out diflSculty, and to good advantage. I 
do not mean that no difference should be 



214 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

made with different customers. One man 
may pay the cash^ and another may buy 
on credit. There is no more impropriety 
in this man's paying for the credit he ob- 
tains, than there is in his paying for the 
money, were he to hire it to make the 
purchases. So too, one may be a con- 
stant customer, and may pay some hun- 
dreds of dollars per year, while another is 
only a transient and occasional customer. 
There is no impropriety in making a de- 
duction to the former, as is usually done. 
I would ask, before closing this topic, 
whether in this connection, there are not 
many disingenuous tricks resorted to, to 
draw in custom ? Is it not sometimes the 
case, that one pretends to be selling off at 
cost, meaning, not what the community 
understand, nor what he intends the com- 
munity shall understand him to mean ; 
but meaning the original cost, the inciden- 
tal expenses, and whatever the individual 
himself may regard his time and his servi- 



HONESTY. 215 

ces as worth ? I do not say this is so, I 
only ask if it be not, sometimes the case, 
that this and some other similar disingenu- 
ous tricks, are adopted, to draw in custom, 
to dupe the simple-minded ? I do not 
suppose that much injury is done to the 
community in this way, but is not an inju- 
ry done to the individual's own soul? 
Can he say, before his own conscience 
and his God, that in all he has said, in all 
the representations he has made, and in 
all that he has done, he has honestly and 
conscientiously done as he would be done 
by ; that there is purity of purpose and 
honesty of intention in his soul ? I would 
next direct your thoughts to the practice 
of becoming surety for a friend, of lending 
him your name, or being upon his paper. 
I have, for a long time, felt as though this, 
as at present practiced, could not be re- 
conciled with the true principles of Gospel 
honesty. When you put your name up- 
on the paper of your friend, what is meant ? 



216 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

You have a young friend, whom you wish 
to assist; to give a start in business. He 
comes to me to obtain goods upon credit^ 
or in part upon credit. He gives me your 
name as security. Now what am I to un- 
derstand you as saying to me, by the act 
of giving him your name ? In the first 
place, I must understand you as saying 
that you have confidence in the character 
of the young man. But, in the second 
place, must I not understand you as say- 
ing that, should his character prove differ- 
ent from what it now promises, or should 
he meet with misfortune, you will assume 
that debt as your own, and will pay all 
that portion of the debt, which he may 
be unable to pay ; that you feel yourself 
able to pay it, without inconvenience, and 
that you honestly intend to pay it, under 
such circumstances, as promptly as if con- 
tracted by yourself? This I suppose to be 
what is usually understood by the act. In- 
deed the very circumstance that good 



HONESTY. 217 

names are demanded, shows that this is 
what is understood. Now, I ask, how a 
conscientious man, who means to practice 
upon the christian principle of honesty, 
can lend another his name, in this way, 
without first looking to his circumstances 
to see if he be able, without difficulty, to 
pay at least a portion of the debt, in case 
his friend should be unable to do it ; with- 
out seriously asking himself whether, in 
such a case, he is willing and honestly in- 
tends to pay. If the act be performed in 
this way, if there is on the part of him, 
who signs for another, abihty to pay, and 
the honest intention of paying, then it is all 
fair dealing. Then is the credit system, a 
good system, and none would ever have 
been found to complain of it. But I have 
feared, that of late, this practice is not 
marked by this fair dealing, by this 
thoughtfulness as to means, and this hon- 
esty of intention as to the results. I have 
heard of men, not worth more than four 
18 



218 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

or five thousand dollars, and perhaps not 
worth as much as this, whose names have 
been on the paper of their friends, to the 
amount of thirty or forty thousand dollars, 
and perhaps even more. Could those men 
have had, at the time they signed, any hon- 
est intention of paying the debt contract- 
ed, or even the half of it, should circum- 
stances throw it upon them ? It seems to 
me not. And yet, did not the person who 
gave the credit, suppose that they intend- 
ed to do this, or at least to pay the por- 
tion in which the principal might be defi- 
cient? Did they not deceive him and 
thereby violate the principle of doing as 
they would be done by ? The signing for 
another, now, ^eems to be regarded as on- 
ly an expression of confidence in the char- 
acter of him for whom you sign. And, 
even in this light, but little dependance 
can be placed upon it. Here are two in- 
dividuals, who know the circumstances of 
each other, and who know them to be 



HONESTY. 219 

doubtful. They both wish for recommen- 
dations at the Bank. One says, if you 
will sign for me, I will sign for you. It is, 
between the two, an act of friendship, to 
prop each other up. Neither is able, 
neither intends to pay the other's note, 
should he be unable to pay it himself. 
Nor can the conductors of the Bank rely 
upon the signature of either, as an honest 
expression of confidence in the character 
and pecuniary ability of the other. At 
least so it seems, and so have I feared. 
It is this abuse of the credit system, which 
has brought the whole into disrepute, 
which has destroyed the confidence of the 
community in each other, and rendered' 
our hard times, tenfold harder than they 
otherwise would have been. There is 
another practice, intimately connected 
with this, and equally at variance, as it 
seems to me, with the principle, of true 
gospel honesty. And that is, of imposing 
upon the confidence of those, whose name 



320 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

one obtains. A young man has commen- 
ced and is doing a regular and snug busi- 
ness. He wishes for assistance and ob- 
tains the name and credit of some wealthy 
friend. That friend supposes himself safe 
in lending his name, because he regards 
the business as safe and snug. But he 
soon finds that the young man was en- 
gaged in speculation and has become 
deeply involved. Now, I ask, if that 
young man has acted in good faith, upon 
the true principles of Gospel honesty ? 
Would the other have assisted him, had 
he known all the peculiarities of his pecu- 
niary circumstances ? Again, a man has 
been engaged in business and has a large 
amount of visible property in his hands. 
He is deeply involved and unable to pay 
his debts. He sees and knows this^. But 
he dreads to expose his affairs. The 
times are hard, and he hopes soon to see 
them better. If he can keep on, a short 
time longer, all will be well. Or he sees 



HONESTY. 221 

as he supposes, a prospect, by some par- 
ticular turn, of securing great gain, if he 
can obtain the means of taking the ad- 
vantage of that turn. He goes to some 
friend, who supposes him to be abundantly 
able, and obtains a loan. The times con- 
tinue hard or he is disappointed in his ex- 
pectations, and is compelled to stop. I 
ask if this man has acted in good faith, 
with the person whose assistance he has 
obtained? Most surely not. Had he 
been open and frank, and stated plainly 
his situation, and then asked and obtained 
an act of friendly assistance, all would 
have been fair and honest. But an impo- 
sition has, in the case supposed, been 
practised, the man has violated the princi- 
ple of doing as he would be done by. 
And, perhaps, it is this, in part, the feeling 
that they have been imposed upon, which 
renders those, who have given their names, 
reckless in regard to meeting the demands 
which in consequence may come upon 
them. 18^ 



222 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

I will next invite your attention to the 
practicej which prevails in cases of bank- 
ruptcy, of giving preference to certain 
creditors, who have made loans upon that 
condition. And, on this topic, I will give 
place to an abler writer, and quote from a 
sermon by the Rev. Mr. Dewey of New 
York, to whom I am indebted for many 
of the suggestions and illustrations of this 
chapter. He says, '^ I maintain that no 
man ought to ofler credit, and that no man 
ought to accept credit, on this condition. 
The practice," he says, ^^ is abohshed in 
England, and that there it is regarded as 
bringing a stain upon the commercial 
morality of this country." The principle, 
he continues, is dishonest. It is treachery 
to the body of a man's creditors. He ap- 
peared before them with a certain amount 
of means, and upon the strength of those 
means, they were willing to give him cred- 
it. Those means were the implied condi- 
tion, the very basis of the loan. They 



HONESTY. 223 

saw that he had a large stock of goods, 
that he was doing a large business, and 
they thought there was no danger. They 
depended, in part, upon that visible prop- 
erty, in case of difficulty. But difficulty 
arises, failure comes, and then they find, 
that much or all of that property is pre- 
occupied, and wrested from their hands, 
by certain confidential pledges. If they 
had known this, they would have stood 
aloof, and therefore, I say there is essen- 
tial deception in the case. This princi- 
ple, he adds, still further, ^^L think is the 
very keystone of the arch, that supports 
many an overgrown fabric of credit. And 
this observation has a two-fold bearing. 
Much of the credit, that is obtained,- could 
not exist without this principle. That is 
one thing, but, furthermore, I hold that all 
the extension of credit, which depends on 
this principle, ought not to exist at all. It 
ought not, because the principle is dishon- 
est, and treacherous. It would not, be- 



224 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

cause the first credit, which often puts a 
man in possession of visible means, is not 
given on the strength of confidence in him, 
but on ""the strength of the sacred pledge, 
and then, the after credits are based on 
those visible means. Let every man that 
borrows, tell, as he ought to do, the 
amount of his confidential obligations, and 
many would find their credit seriously cur- 
tailed. And, to that extent, most assured- 
ly it ought to be curtailed." So says Mr. 
Dewey, and I would ask you, to examine 
most carefully his statements, to see if 
there be not truth, important truth in them. 
I have thus touched upon some busi- 
ness practices, and examined them in the 
light of the gospel principle of honesty. 
There are several others, important and 
interesting, which I wished and intended 
to touch upon ; as the case of a monopoly, 
of superior but secret information, of con- 
duct under insolvency, and the question 
of refunding after a compromise with 



HONESTY. '225 

one's creditors^ and a vast number of appa- 
rently trifling, but yet essentially dishonest 
practices which wrong and corrupt a 
man's morals. But I should extend this 
chapter beyond its limits. And perhaps, 
if I have accomplished any thing, in what 
I have said, I have rendered it unnecessa- 
ry to proceed further. I have wished to 
accomplish three things, by the suggestions 
of this chapter. 1st. To establish, in some 
minds, the position, that, in business trans- 
actions, the gospel principle, of doing as 
we would be done by, is to be the guide. 
2d. To awaken business men, and espe- 
cially young men, to the importance of be- 
ing faithful to their own souls, in all their 
business dealings, to lead them to the ha- 
bitual enquiry, in regard to this or that 
transaction, whether in the inmost recesses 
of their souls, there is the honest purpose 
and intention of doing as they might and 
ought, in the exercise of sound reason, to 
wish to be done by ? And 3d. To lead busi- 



226 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

ness men to examine the prevalent practi- 
ces of the business community, by the 
light, and in view of the principles, of the 
Gospel. I have spoken plainly and earn- 
estly, but not unkindly. I believe that, at 
the present time especially, in conse- 
quence, perhaps, of the derangement in 
business affairs, there is a great want of 
honesty in the common dealings of many 
in the community. I believe that many 
business men feel this, and mourn over it. 
I would ask, then, if those among business 
men, who thus perceive and mourn over 
this want of honesty, should not feel them- 
selves called to perform a missionary la- 
bour, in bringing back the principles of 
business, to a correspondence with the 
principles of the Gospel. 



CHAP. VL 



THE GOLDEN MEAN, 



An Apostle has said they that will be rich, 
fall into a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruc- 
tion and perdition. And so natural, so 
true to facts are his words, that a man of 
observation and reflection, who has wit- 
nessed and carefully meditated upon the 
course of the business community for the 
last four or five years, would almost con- 
clude that the Apostle had witnessed some- 
thing similar in the business community 
of his own times, and had simply stated 
the result of his own observation and re- 
flection. Just look around you, and see 
how many there are, who, in the times of 
speculation, which have recently passed 
over us, fell into temptation and a snare ; 



228 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

how many, who have, in the sad reverse 
which followed, been drawn into destruc- 
tion and perdition. And what is the root, 
the primary cause of all this evil? It is 
that men were not content with moderate 
gains, which required prudent husbanding, 
and which promised only competency. It 
is because men would he rich, I will state 
a single case, which fell under my own 
observation, and which will bring to mind, 
I doubt not, hundreds of similar cases, 
which have fallen under the observation of 
almost every one. On a certain occasion, 
as I was walking our streets, I noticed that 
one of my young friends had removed his 
name from over the door of his place of 
business, and a new name had taken its 
place. I soon after met this young friend 
and said to him, friend what does it mean 
that your name is down ? I will tell you 
what it means, he replied. I was doing a 
good and safe, and regular business. My 
profits, though not great, were enough to 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 229 

enable me to pay all my expenses, and to 
lay up something yearly. But I saw many 
around me, apparently becoming rapidly 
rich by speculation. I too would be rich, 
I too entered into speculation, and here I 
am, unable to pay my debts, and obliged 
to leave the city. This is but a single 
case. I name it, not because there is in 
it any thing peculiar, but, on the contrary, 
because there is nothing in it peculiar ; be- 
cause it corresponds, in its principal fea- 
tures, with thousand of other cases here 
and elsewhere, which might be named. 
And where, in this case, was the root, the 
source of the difficulty ? Was it not in 
the feelings of the individual, in his un- 
willingness to rest contented with moder- 
ate gains, and a prospect of competency 
only ? Was it not, because there was a 
controlling anxiety to be rich ? And now, 
my friends, just cast about you for a mo- 
ment, and call to mind the numbers, who 
were doing a fair business^ and who had a 
19 



230 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

reasonable prospect of securing a compe- 
tency, provided they would persevere in a 
course of industry, economy, and honesty, 
but who, under the influence of a control- 
ling anxiety to be rich, entered into spec- 
ulation, fell into temptation and a snare, 
and are now drowned in pecuniary de- 
struction. Nay more. There is a sad- 
der sight, still, presented by the times, 
and one which, though painful to behold, 
ought to be brought distinctly up to the 
mind's eye, that we may carefully contem- 
plate it and gather from it the lessons, it is 
calculated to teach. How many are the 
instances, in which individuals of pure mo- 
tives, of correct characters, of known and 
well established integrity of principle, who 
have, under the influence of this desire to 
be rich, entered into speculation, and then 
without the slightest intention, as we may 
suppose, of wronging any one, have been 
led on, step by step, in the hope of soon 
freeing themselves from all embarrass- 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 231 

ments, until, at last, they have been involv- 
ed not only in pecuniary destruction, but 
in the far greater ruin of character. 

And what I ask, again, is the source of 
all this evil ? We may lay it to the chang- 
es of Governmental policy, to the false lures 
and deceitful practices of the spirit of spec- 
ulation. But no. These are accompani- 
ments and aggravations of the evil, but 
they are not the source of it. The source 
lies deep in individual breasts. It is the 
anxious desire to be rich. 

I do not mean that every one, who has 
been ruined, has felt this desire. For ma- 
ny have undoubtedly been involved, sim- 
ply by their friendship for and connection 
with those, who were making haste to be 
rich. The mechanic has left his shop, the 
husbandman his farm, the lawyer his of- 
fice, the merchant his store, the physician 
his practice, to engage in speculation. 
And why ? Because in these pursuits they 
could not support themselves, were not 



232 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

gaining anything, had no prospect of com- 
petency ? Oh no. It was because their 
gains were small and gradual, and they 
had no prospect of becoming a^ once, rich. 
Could you have penetrated the thoughts 
of these men, before they ventured, you 
would have found them reasoning with 
themselves in this way : It seems hard, 
they would say, that we should plod on for 
years and barely secure a competent sup- 
port, or a trifle for our children, when our 
neighbor, in a few weeks, and by a single 
operation perhaps, has become immensely 
rich. And could you have seated your- 
selves in the midst of their families, you 
might perhaps have heard the wives even 
urging the same thing, that if there was so 
much to be made, that if it were so easy a 
matter to be rich, their husbands might as 
well secure a part in order to have tilings 
more comfortable, and to be free from ef- 
fort and struggle and hard labour in ap- 
proaching old age. Thus you perceive 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 233 

he secret source of all this evil, has been 
the anxious desire to be rich, based per- 
haps upon the mistaken notion that riches 
are necessary to happiness. 

We are now suffering from the pressure 
of the times, and we have suffered for a 
long period. But I fear the principal les- 
son, which, in the Providence of God,these 
hard times were intended to teach, has not 
yet been fully learned. They have taught 
the necessity of industry, the duty of econ- 
omy, the importance of honesty. But the 
folly and the danger of an anxious desire 
to be rich, which is the principal lesson 
they were intended to teach, has not, I fear, 
been thoroughly learned. I fear that, if there 
now were an opportunity to engage in 
speculation, with the same prospect of suc- 
cess, with which it was engaged in, in 1835, 
we should find a very large portion of our 
citizens at once rushing into the pursuit 
of sudden riches. It matters not what 
might be the subject of speculation, wheth- 
20=^ 



234 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

er laiid^ or stock, or potatoes, or molasses. 
Whatever it might be, you would find men 
ready, even now, after all their sad expe- 
rience, to rush into speculation, to leave 
their regular pursuits for this, to despise 
their moderate gains, in the hopes of sud- 
den and great wealth. You can make but 
little calculation upon the influence of the 
sufferings which men have endured, nor yet 
upon the worldly wisdom and shrewdness, 
which they have acquired. The only 
hope of avoiding similar evils, must rest, as 
it seems to me, upon correct religious views 
of the objects and circumstances of life. 
You cannot judge of what would be the 
conduct of those, who are determined to 
be rich, by the correctness of their views 
of the evils of speculation. I well remem- 
ber that in the year 1835, men of sound 
judgment, when reminded of other similar 
fevers, which had proved to be bubbles, 
and had burst, burying many in ruin,would 
say, that is all true, but this is an exception. 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 235 

There is the land, which costs so much per 
acre, and there are so many trees to the 
acre, a very small portion of which will pay 
the cost and leave the land and all the rest 
of the timber free. Therefore, said they, 
this cannot prove a bubble, there is no 
possibility of it. Such is the manner, in 
which men of sound sense reasoned, and 
such was the hallucination under which 
they laboured. And men who were utter- 
ly averse to the whole, were at last over- 
powered by the constant reiteration of this 
argument, and others like it. Being in- 
fluenced by the desire to be rich, and see- 
ing so fair a prospect of becoming rich, 
they were led to engage in the game that 
was playing. Now what I fear is this, that if 
in one week or one month, a similar state 
of things should dawn upon us, we should 
find as large a portion of our people, who 
would rush into speculation, as there did 
in 1835. And I fear there is still the same 
anxious desire to be rich, and even to be 



236 W^EK-DAY RELIGION. 

suddenly rich. What I wish to see is this, 
that a young man in any of the pursuits of 
Hfe, who is conscious, that, in the circle in 
which he moves, he is doing good, and 
who is supporting himself and those depen- 
dent upon him, and gaining something, 
sTiould maintain a determined contentment 
with his condition. If he should see his 
neighbor becoming rich in a day, I would 
have him still continue on in his accus- 
tomed pursuit, content with his ordinary 
gains, without being excited or dishearten- 
ed by the thought, or desire of his neigh- 
bor's suddenly accumulated wealth. And 
this state of mind never can be secured, 
until men are fully convinced of the folly, 
and I know not but I might add, the sin of 
anxiously desiring to be rich, and the mor- 
al danger of actually being rich. These 
two points I shall endeavor to establish in 
this chapter. 

But, in order to establish these two 
points, I must first observe, by way of still 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 237 

further preliminary remark, that, in order 
to judge correctly upon this, or any similar 
subject, we must acquire correct views of 
the true objects of life. For, when we 
pronounce a course of conduct foolish or 
dangerous, we mean that it is so, in refer- 
ence to the true objects of life. The ob- 
ject of life I say. For, if we are not the 
mere creatures of chance, if we are placed 
here by an all-wise Jehovah, then we must 
have been created and placed here for 
some purpose, to accompHsh some object. 
Now I most fully believe that we are taught 
to regard ourselves as spiritual beings, oc- 
cupying for a time the frail tenement of 
the body, but destined, long after we shall 
have thrown aside or changed our bodies, 
destined to live on throughout the endless 
ages of eternity. Still further, I believe 
that we are taught that our condition in 
that world which is beyond the grave, will 
depend upon the degree to which our mor- 
al characters have been improved and our 



238 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

spiritual faculties developed while here. 
Still further, I fully believe that observa- 
tion and experience, as well as revealed in- 
struction^teach that the improvement of the 
moral character and the developement of 
the spiritual faculties, while here, are to 
be secured by passing religiously and cor- 
rectly through the scenes, by meeting pa- 
tiently and resignedly the trials, and by 
performing conscientiously the duties, of 
this life. If this view be correct, it lays 
open the object of life. We see that the 
great object which we are to accomplish 
on earth, is to secure the formation of cor- 
rect characters ; characters which shall be 
marked by holiness of motive, by purity 
of feeling and affection, by correctness of 
deportment, and by the cultivation of spir- 
itual tastes. In other words, the great 
object of effort on earth, is so to train the 
soul to a pure, devout and holy frame, that 
such shall be its habitual state and shall fit 
it for everlasting joys in the spiritual world. 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 239 

He who has most fully perfected his own 
moral character, and who has secured the 
greatest degree of spiritual improvement, 
has best accomplished the true purposes of 
life in regard to himself. And he who has 
done the most to promote the moral and 
spiritual good of those around him, has best 
accomplished the true purposes of hfe in 
regard to others. 

It is in view of this, as the important 
objects of life, that I would attempt to 
shew the folly, and the danger, of an anx- 
iety to be rich. And first, I remark that 
a business life may have, and should have, 
important moral purposes as its object. 
Such purposes may be secured, by the 
right performance of the various transac- 
tions of a business life. As a mechanic, 
as a merchant, as a lawyer, you may pro- 
pose to yourselves, these high and impor- 
tant moral purposes, to be accomplished 
by the manner, in which you may dis- 
charge the various duties of your respec- 



240 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

live pursuits. But how are these purpos- 
es to be accomplished ? I answer, that, 
if you make it a matter of principle to be 
diligent in your business, you thereby cul- 
tivate and strengthen the habit of indus- 
try, you acquire a constantly increasing 
correctness of estimate, as to the real val- 
ue of time. The more carefully one im- 
proves his time, the more clearly does he 
perceive, and the more fully does he feel, 
that it is a valuable possession, given that 
it may be employed for high and holy pur- 
poses ; the more truly and deeply grateful 
does he feel to God for the gift, and the 
more sensible of his accountability for the 
right improvement of the time that may 
be allotted to him on earth. If you make 
it a matter of principle, to be true in all 
your representations, honest in all your 
dealings, and faithful to all your promises, 
the more fully will you establish the habit 
of a conscientious regard to duty in all 
these particulars. Indeed the more fully 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 241 

will you establish the habit of applying 
the decisions of conscience to the various 
duties of ordinary life. And what is this 
habit of conscientiousness ? Is it not the 
habit of enquiring for^ and of endeavor* 
ing to observe in all things the rule of du- 
ty? Under the light of Christianity, will 
it not become an habitual enquiry for, an 
habitual endeavour to obey the will of God, 
an habitual denying of selfish propensities, 
an habitual control of selfish appetites 
and passions, an habitual withstanding of 
all temptations which would interfere with 
this single devotion to duty, to the will of 
God ? You may be tempted to defraud, 
to enter upon doubtful practices, to over- 
look the character of the means you em- 
ploy, in your eager desire to reach wished 
for ends. These temptations you will 
withstand. And, by withstanding them, 
will gain increased strength of moral prin- 
ciple, improvement of moral character. 
You will be exposed to disappointments, 
20 



242 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

your best laid plans will often be frustra- 
ted, your hopes and expectations, which 
seemed well grounded, will be disappoint- 
ed. These you will endeavour to bear pa- 
tiently, and cheerfully, in a spirit of res- 
ignation to God's will. You may at times 
be brought into circumstances of compar- 
ative poverty, and may, at best, acquire 
only a competency. You will, under these 
circumstances, cherish a spirit of unwaver- 
ing trust and confidence in God's over- 
ruling Providence. In this way, all your 
business transactions will become the means 
of your religious improvement, inasmuch 
as they will afford a continual exercise for 
your religious principles, and will, thereby, 
strengthen and improve your religious 
character. In this way, all your disap- 
pointments in business will become the 
means of religious improvement. You 
will take with you, to your places of bus- 
iness, the thought of God, of your depen- 
dence upon him, and of your accounta- 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. '243 

bility to him. In this way, will your dis- 
charge of the business duties of the day, 
prepare you for the religious exercises of 
the morning and the evening. As you 
lift up your hearts to God, in morning 
prayer, it will be, with the feeling that 
you will conscientiously endeavour to serve 
him in your business during the day, and 
may therefore approach him with childlike 
confidence, to seek for his presence with 
you and his blessing upon you. You will 
lift up your heart at night, in gratitude that 
you have been assisted to hold fast your 
integrity, that you have been enabled to 
maintain purity of heart, honesty and up- 
rightness of motive. You will feel that 
God has been with you during the day, 
and the very business transactions in which 
you have engaged, from the conscien- 
tious and religious manner in which you 
have discharged them, will lead you to 
mental or vocal evening devotions. In the 
same way, your discharge of the duties of 



244 WEEK-DAY RELIGION, 

the weekj will prepare you for the better 
performance of the appropriate exercises 
of the sabbath. These you will regard as 
the means of strengthening you for the 
better performance of the duties of the 
coming week. Nay more, the conscien- 
tious discharge of the business transac- 
tions of life, will prepare you for the ap- 
proach of death. You have often met 
your God, and endeavored to serve him 
acceptably in your places of business, the 
thought of him is familiar to your minds, 
and pleasant to your souls, and therefore, 
you will not dread to meet him in the eter- 
nal world. This you may say is all vis- 
ionary, the mere fanciful theories of a 
man of books. It is not so. If, in any 
one thing, I have been able to trace the 
influence pf my conduct upon my religious 
feelings, rendering them more lively and 
ardent ; upon my religious principles, ren- 
dering them more firm and stable ; upon 
my love for and my devotion to God ; up- 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 245 

on my love for, and my devotion to my 
Saviour, it has been, when under a con- 
scientious regard for God's will, I have 
endeavored to discharge faithfully the com- 
mon duties of life ; it has been, when in 
trial affliction and disappointment, I have 
regarded them as permitted by God, and 
have endeavoured to bear them in a spirit 
of resignation to his will ; -when, in un- 
pleasant duties, I have regarded them as 
assigned by God, and have endeavoured 
to perform them as in his sight. It is not 
a view which I have gathered from books, 
or from silent musing, but from actual ev- 
eryday life. And I appeal to my readers. 
There are some among them I trust, who 
have endeavoured to conduct their busi- 
ness transactions in the religious manner 
I have suggested. And I ask, if the very 
endeavour has not served, in a very pow- 
erful degree, to strengthen, within you, 
your religious principles, to render more 
deep and ardent your religious feelings, 
21* 



246 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

to increase your attachment to the truths^ 
the principles, the promises of our holy 
religion ? Some of you have, in these 
changing times, been reduced in your es- 
tates. And you have endeavoured, as a 
matter of duty before God, to bring your 
feehngs and desires to a correspondence 
with your circumstances, not by still more 
hazardous adventures, but by increased 
diligence, more rigid economy, and by 
honestly endeavouring to pay your debts, 
as far and as fast as you may be able. I 
appeal to those, who have pursued this 
course, and ask, if it has not done as much, 
as any secret prayers, as sabbath services, 
to give peace and calmness of soul, to 
deepen religious feeling, and strengthen 
religious principle, to increase an attach- 
ment to the principles of our religion, and 
a love of God and of the Saviour ? And 
I make the appeal, with perfect confidence 
that you will give a favourable answer. 
Cherish then the feeling that a business 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. ^247 

life, in all its various departments, was in- 
tended by God, and may be improved by 
man, to the right development and proper 
formation of a truly christian character. 

But this cannot be done, if you make 
it the primary object of your business life 
to acquire riches. For, in business, it holds 
especially true, that you cannot serve God 
and mammon. If you are anxious to be 
rich, your very anxiety will banish from 
your mind all holy purposes, all devout 
feelings, all conscientious regard for reli- 
gious principle. Instead of watching, to 
see how you can so conduct your business, 
as to promote your religious improvement, 
you will be watchful to see how you can, 
the most surely, and the most rapidly, ac- 
cumulate wealth. Every change in bus- 
iness prospects, will fill you with an un- 
christian uneasiness, and every disappoint- 
ment will distract the equanimity of your 
soul. Your mode of conducting your 
business will have an influence, to secular- 



248 WEEK-DAY RELIGION* 

ize your mind, and to unfit it for devotion- 
al and religious exercises. This will be 
the general influence of an anxious desire 
to be rich, upon your religious and moral 
character. But there are particular and 
deplorable evil influences, which result 
from the same desire, and which ought to 
be noticed. 

And first, this desire induces young men 
to commence business on too large a scale. 
If a young man has made himself some- 
what acquainted with mercantile pursuits, 
he is unwilling to wait, in the employ of 
another, even when fair wages are offered. 
The wages of a clerk, even the highest, 
are but small it is thought, compared with 
what is desired, and the accumulations 
which accrue in this way, are but gradual. 
They are, oftentimes, not sufficient to sup- 
port the extravagant expenditures which 
are indulged in. And capital, secured in 
this way, is to be secured only by denying 
one's self. The young clerk, who wou 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 249 

hi this way, prepare a foundation for fu- 
ture business, must excuse himself from 
many a ride, must refrain from daily visits 
at the confectionary, and nightly resorts to 
the theatre or other places of amusement, 
he must content himself with less expen- 
sive clothing than is worn by his dandy 
associates, and he must wear his clothes 
much longer, and purchase new suits much 
less frequently than they do. And after 
all, it is not much that can be secured in a 
year, even by the most rigid economy. 
The aspiring minds and ardent feelings of 
the young cannot brook this slow process. 
They therefore rush into business for them- 
selves. But in this, instead of following 
the course of nature and of propriety, and 
beginning in a small way, according to 
their means, and pursuing a course of close 
attention to business, and of a prudent 
saving of small gains, and letting their 
business gradually extend as their means 
increase, they must do a large business at 



250 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

once. They must begin with a store filled 
to overflowing, with goods purchased up- 
on credit. They must make as large pur- 
chases as the man who has been in busi- 
ness for years, and has accumulated a hand- 
some capital. Two young men were a 
year or two since, conversing upon this 
subject. The one prudent, honest and 
careful. The other bold, reckless, daring, 
and in love with the modern spirit of en- 
terprize. The latter advised the former to 
make such arrangements, as would secure 
him goods to the amount of twenty thous- 
and dollars, and take them out to the West. 
^^ There is a probability," said he, " that 
you may be able so to turn them, that you 
will be able to meet your payment, and se- 
cure to yourself riches, by your first ad- 
venture. And if not, you can fail and 
compromise with your creditors, and it is 
just as well to do this with a debt of twen- 
ty thousand, as with a debt of five hun- 
dred dollars." This expresses the feeling, 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 251 

by which too many young nien are actua- 
ted. They want to be rich, and to be rich 
at once. They are un wilUng to go through 
the slow and careful process, which many 
of their elders have gone through. They 
prefer running risks, and making business 
a game of chance, feeling that the risk 
that is run is upon other people's property. 
In this way, the anxious desire to be rich 
leads them into temptation and a snare. 
It too often happens, that it involves them 
in pecuniary destruction, that they are 
soon ruined, dragging down in their fall, 
many of their friends. But in the mean 
time, what becomes of their moral charac- 
ter, their nice sense of honour, their prin- 
ciples of Gospel honesty, their tenderness 
of conscience. Are they not all drowned 
by the all-absorbing, the corrupting, per- 
verting desire to be rich ? 

Again. This anxious desire to be rich, 
leads men into temptations and a snare, by 
leading them to involve themselves too ex- 



252 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tensively in business. A young man com- 
mences business and is successful. As he 
prospers, he enlarges his business. In this 
way he goes on;, until he becomes so involv- 
ed, that he cannot manage all his various 
concerns with prudence, and to advantage. 
He becomes embarrassed and is ruined. 
And the reason is, that, in his anxious de- 
sire to grasp riches, he undertook too 
much. He might have done well, had he 
pursued his original business ; had he been 
content with doing wejl. But no. He 
would be rich, and he fell into temptation 
and a snare. And as to his moral and 
spiritual character, it has been entirely ne- 
glected. He has had no time to attend 
to this, and his mind has been so distract- 
ed that he could not attend to it if he had 
time. In his desire and endeavour to be 
rich, he almost forgot that he had a soul 
to be cared for, or a moral and spiritual 
nature to be cherished and cultivated. I 
would ask my readers to look round, and 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 253 

say, can you not point to many, who have 
been ruined in business prospects, and in- 
jured in character, because they would not 
commence in a small way, and would not 
go on gradually, or because, when suc- 
cessful, they extended their business too 
far, and grasped at too much ; who were 
anxious to be rich, and, as a consequence, 
have been led into temptation and a snare* 
But in the third place, this anxious de- 
sire to be rich leads men into temptation, 
by leading them to the pursuit of question- 
able courses of business. Take, as an il- 
lustration of this, the traffic in intoxicat- 
ing drinks. I am not now about to dis- 
cuss the propriety of this traffic. I simply 
adduce it, and that too, upon the grounds, 
upon w^hich those who engage in it place 
it, as an illustration of my position. For 
I never yet heard of one engaged in this 
traffic, who would contend that it was pro- 
ductive of the general good of the com- 
munity, or who would contend that it was 
21 



254 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

not productive of very extensive evil in 
the community. But the reason alleged 
for the traffic, by those who engage in it, is 
that they cannot obtain a livelihood were 
they to give it up. This is the alleged 
reason. The true reason is, that they 
could not secure so large gains, were they 
to give it up. No man ever believes that 
he could not secure a support, without en- 
gaging in this traffic. No. It is the anxi- 
ous desire to be rich which influences them. 
Suppose that in any community the young 
men were all governed by the Gospel prin- 
ciples, that all men were anxious so to con- 
duct their businen^ as to secure their own 
moral and spirituiil^rliprovement, and to 
promote the generalS3j|Gtod-of the commu- 
nity ; would any one of these men engage 
in a traffic like this ? Most surely not. 
But this is only one of many pursuits, 
which will not bear the light, and in which 
men are induced to engage, through the 
controlling power of their anxious desire 
to be rich. 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 255 

In the fourth place, the anxious desire 
to be rich leads men into temptation, by 
leading them into dishonest modes of do- 
ing business, modes, which they them- 
selves will not defend as honest. I need 
not here specify cases, for my position re- 
fers to the nameless host of disingenuous 
practices, and dishonest courses, to which 
men resort in business, to secure custom, 
to increase gains, to preserve appearances. 
How often do men on the eve of a fail- 
ure, resort to dishonest practices, rather 
than let it be known to the world they are 
poor. How often is character, conscience, 
happiness, sacrificed to the miserable de- 
sire of being rich, or the more miserable 
desire of being thought to be rich. 

Finally, the desire to be rich often leads 
men away from all healthy moral and re- 
ligious influences, to the exposure of their 
lives, to the exposure of their moral prin- 
ciples and moral character. Let it be said 
that in a certain place there is a prospect 



256 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

of securing at once, immense wealth, and 
I care not what physical or moral dangers 
may be in the way, you will find numbers 
ready to rush to the place. Let it be 
known that seventy-five out of every hun- 
dred, who might visit the place, should 
die, still there would be numbers to rush, 
nothing deterred by this certainty. Nay 
more, let it be known that seventy-five, 
out of every hundred, should be morally 
ruined, and still there would be multitudes 
ready to go. Housewives and children, 
and friends, all are frequently forsaken, for 
years, in the hope and the endeavor to be 
rich. And it sometimes seems, so strong 
is the passion for wealth, that men would 
almost be ready to consent voluntarily, 
and deliberately, to lose their own souls, 
provided they could gain the whole world. 
I have thus endeavored to shew, that 
an anxious desire to be rich induces young 
men to commence business upon too large 
a scale; that it induces those, who are sue- 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 257 

cessful, to extend their business too far ; 
that it leads men to engage in questiona- 
ble courses, and to adopt dishonest modes 
of doing business, and finally that it leads 
them to forego all the pleasures and advan- 
tages of refined, elevated and christian so- 
ciety, all that might improve the heart, lib- 
eralize the mind, or give joy to social life, 
and to expose themselves to danger, dis- 
ease and ruin, both temporal and moral. 
And I ask you to look at these influences, 
in view of the great object of life. See 
how that objegt is lost sight of, or utterly 
neglected, through the absorbing power of 
this desire to be rich. And say, is there 
not folly and danger in the desire ? 

But I take another ground, and contend 
that, even when you have done nothing 
dishonorable, have acquired riches by tru- 
ly christian methods ; even under these 
circumstances, I contend that there is dan- 
ger, extreme moral danger, connected with 
and flowing out of the very possession of 
19=^ 



258 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

these riches. I contend that there are 
moral Hmits, in the accumulations of 
wealth, beyond which it is dangerous for 
any man to go. But how does this ap- 
pear ? I answer, first, that the health and 
happiness of man is often impaired by the 
possession of wealth. I could point you 
to many a man, who enjoyed uninterrupt- 
ed health, while poor and engaged in ac- 
tive business, or while only in moderate 
circumstances and compelled to effort, 
who, when he has become rich and has 
yielded to the indulgences, which are 
within his power, has been full of pains, 
and constantly unhappy. Men cannot 
enjoy good health, unless they are active 
and temperate. And yet most of us are 
naturally indolent, needing some spur, or 
fond of indulging our appetites, needing 
some restraint. He who has it in liis 
power to indulge in idleness, or to secure 
whatever of luxurious indulgence he may 
fancy, is, to say the least, exposed to very 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 259 

strong temptations. Many fall before 
these temptations, fall into foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruc- 
tion and perdition. We know not how 
weak and frail we may be, how easily we 
might be overcome. In desiring to be 
rich, then, we may be desiring that very 
state of things, which would involve us in 
ill health and in great unhappiness. Is it 
not then folly to be anxious for the posses- 
sion of that, which is not, in itself, a sure 
source of happiness ? In the second 
place, I say there is very little happiness 
in the mere possession of wealth. In ac- 
quiring wealth, that is, to say in conduct- 
ing business upon the principles of honor 
and honesty, and in witnessing the suc- 
cessful results of your plans and efforts, 
there is pleasure, and so too in the right 
use of property there is pleasure, in pro- 
curing the comforts and conveniences of 
life, in the means of intellectual and moral 
improvement, in doing what it may enable 



260 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

US to do for the good of those dependant 
upon us, and those around us, there is 
pleasure. But in the mere possession of 
wealth there is httle true and rational 
pleasure. On the contrary, the possession 
of wealth is often attended with much un- 
easiness and unhappiness. It is not by 
any means the rich, that constitute the 
happiest class amongst us. I might ap- 
peal to the rich themselves, and they would 
point to the years spent in active and en- 
ergetic efforts to secure property, as their 
happiest years, to the years of their pov- 
erty or their competency, and not to the 
years of their wealth, as the happiest pe- 
riod of their lives. But even the securing 
of wealth, when attended with the anxious 
desire to be rich, is not productive of hap- 
piness. It is the consciousness of honor- 
able purposes, of pure hearts, and clean 
hands, which is the source of happiness. 
If then you seek only happiness, you per- 
ceive that in view of this object, there is 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 261 

folly and danger in the indulgence of the 
anxious desire to be^rich. 

In the third place, the possession of 
riches, more often than otherwise, exerts 
an injurious influence upon the character. 
It either leads men to luxurious indulgen- 
ces, which render the soul selfish, in the 
desire of personal gratifications, or to ex- 
tremely avaricious and miserly courses. 
In some instances the character becomes 
supremely selfish, in the desire of personal 
gratifications. The individual finds the 
simple pleasures of life insipid, and seeks 
for those of a more exciting and danger- 
ous kind. And it matters not how much 
suffering may be endured by others, in 
their endeavor to procure the means of 
selfish personal gratification. In other in- 
stances all the generous feelings of the 
soul are chilled, and the heart becomes su- 
premely avaricious. The instances are 
somewhat rare, in which a rich man, is 
true to nature in his taste for simple and 



262 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

healthful pleasures, and at the same time, 
noble-hearted and generous in regard to 
others. When we see such instances, we 
we speak of them as exceptions to general 
expectations, as exceptions to general re- 
sults. I do not say that this injury, of 
the moral character, is the sure result of 
the possession of riches. But I do contend 
that such is very often the case, and the 
reason why I shall dwell upon this, is, that 
men, who possess riches, may feel that, 
thereby, they are exposed to moral danger, 
and may be on their guard against it. 
The possession of great wealth, oftener 
than otherwise, injures the moral charac- 
ter and closes the heart against the claims 
of piety and religion. 

But finally, the possession of riches is 
injurious to the children of those who pos- 
sess them. It has sometimes seemed to me 
strange, that men are no more influenced 
by the most obvious facts, which stare tliem 
in the face. All past experience proves, 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 263 

that whenever a man has acquired prop- 
erty, to such an amount that his child- 
ren feel that they are under no necessity 
for effort, the children are from that mo- 
ment exposed to great moral danger. And 
I suspect that if you will look through so- 
ciety, you will find that seven out of every 
ten, who have been left rich by their pa- 
rents, have been ruined in their business 
transactions, and in their moral character. 
It has been said that our large cities, would 
soon run out, in regard to men of energy 
and character and enterprise, were it not 
for the continual influx into them of the 
poor from the country. Just look through 
the descendants of the richest families in 
the community, and how many do you 
find, who have been ruined by the riches 
which they have inherited. Undoubtedly, 
the energy and enterprise which mark th« 
character of New-England people, may 
be attributed, in a good degree, to their 
generally having sprung from comparative- 



264 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

ly poor parents. They do not inherit 
wealth, they are under the necessity of 
putting forth their most strenuous exer- 
tions, and this it is, which gives them their 
energy, enterprise and perseverance. I 
suppose that all will admit that to inherit 
wealth is more often than otherwise the 
ruin of those who inherit it. And yet, 
notwithstanding the lessons which are thus 
taught by every day's observation and ex- 
perience, men go on seeking to lay up 
wealth for their children. I have known 
fathers, so engrossed in their efforts to 
leave a large inheritance to their children, 
as to neglect entirely the right training of 
those children. Instead of training their 
children to habits of industry, economy, 
honesty and a manly dependance upon 
themselves, they have neglected all these, 
and spent their whole energies in laying 
up wealth for their inheritance, in securing 
the very means of completing that ruin, 
which had been commenced in their ne- 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 265 

glected education. I have said that men 
admit the danger resulting from inherited 
wealth. They see and feel all this. 
They contrive various v^^ays to avoid and 
escape the danger. One man w^ill refuse 
to assist his son, or to indulge his daugh- 
ter. But what is the consequence ? The 
children see and know that the father is 
rich. They murmur and repine at his 
treatment of them. They feel that when he 
is gone, the wealth will be theirs, and they 
determine that, when they come into pos- 
session, they will remunerate themselves, 
by their indulgences, for the deprivations 
to which they have been subjected, and thus 
the very feelings they indulge are pre- 
paring them for moral ruin. Another will 
take all possible pains to instil right princi- 
ples,and train his children to correct habits. 
But he too often finds, that he is contend- 
ing against the circumstances of his condi- 
tion, and that the actual influence of cir- 
cumstances is far more powerful than any 
23 



266 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

direct teaching. These and various other 
ways are often tried, to escape from the 
admitted danger of inherited wealth, and 
often tried in vain. How much more sim- 
ple and easy to content one's self with a 
competency, and to secure the influence 
of circumstances, in connection with direct 
teaching, in favour of the best moral good 
of those we love. 

I have spoken of the danger of dissipa- 
tion and moral ruin, to which the subjects 
of inherited wealth are exposed. There 
is another view, to which it is important to 
direct a moment's thought. It is this; that 
even where such are not ruined, where 
they maintain correct moral characters, 
theyfare enfeebled and crippled by their 
inheritance of wealth. They have not the 
same energy of character,the same vigor of 
intellect, the same perseverance,which they 
would have, were they poor. In all their 
efforts, they feel that they have something; 
that they have their father's wealth, to fall 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 267 

back upon, provided they should not suc- 
ceed. They do not depend upon them- 
selves and their own efforts, and conse- 
quently they do not make the men, that 
they otherwise would have made. Look 
around you, and say, who are the most ac- 
tive and energetic men in all the various 
branches of business, in all the various pro- 
fessions. Are they not, in a large majority 
of instances, the sons of the comparative- 
ly poor. And why is this ? It is not be- 
cause the children of the poor are born 
with superior elements of character, to 
those of the rich. It is because the cir- 
cumstances of their early life are such, as 
to call forth, and exercise and strengthen 
their capacities. It is this difference in 
the circumstances of early life, and not 
difference in native capacity, which caus- 
es the widely marked difference in their 
characters. 

He, then, who lays up wealth for his 
children, is doing what may be in his pow- 



268 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

er, to place them under temptations to 
vice, and amid the danger of ruin, which 
have proved too powerful for a very large 
proportion of those, who have been expos- 
ed to them. Or he is doing what may 
be in his power, to deprive them of the ad- 
vantages of that influence of the circum- 
stances of early life, which is best calcula- 
ted to develope their powers and to make 
them all that they are capable of becom- 
ing. In view then of the future welfare 
of children, is there not folly and danger 
in an anxious desire to be rich ? I have 
thus my friends shown that the bare pos- 
session of riches is often the destruction of 
men's health and happiness, that it often 
exerts an injurious influence upon the mor- 
al character, and that it often entails fee- 
bleness of character, and even moral ruin 
upon the children of the wealthy. 

And now, I would say to my readers, 
and especially to the younger portion of 
them, for the remarks of this chapter are 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 269 

more particularly applicable to young men, 
will you permit me, in close, to warn and 
exhort you with all affection and all plain- 
ness ? I feel that, in this chapter more 
than in any other, which has preceded it, 
I am speaking in opposition to the preva- 
lent feeling, the almost universal passion 
of the community, for wealth. I suppose 
that there is scarcely a young man to be 
found, who does not cherish the hope, and 
sometimes even the anxious desire, to be 
rich. I suppose that most of you, would 
at once leave your present residenqe, your 
present pursuits, and rush into almost any 
enterprise, which might promise certain 
and speedy wealth. What I wish to see 
is, that our young men, actuated by the 
spirit of the gospel, seeking to secure their 
own moral and spiritual improvement, and 
to promote the best good of those around 
them, should select their place of resi- 
dence, and their pursuits, with a reference 
to these high objects, and then should go 
22* 



270 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

quietly, and calmly, forward, contented if 
their pursuit affords them a fair support, 
with the prospect of competency, as the 
result of years of industrious effort, and 
prudent saving. Yea, even though one 
and another, or even many around them, 
should, by a fortunate speculation, step at 
once from poverty to the possession of im- 
mense wealth, still I would have them go 
quietly forward in their course of industry, 
economy and honesty, in their course of 
small gains and gradual accumulations. 
And I would have you do this as a matter 
of duty before God, and under the influ- 
ence of religious principles. I have point- 
ed out some of the dangers of an anx- 
ious desire to be rich. The views which I 
have presented are sustained, as I believe, 
by observation and experience. They are 
dangers to your moral and spiritual wel- 
fare ; dangers before which others, who 
have thought themselves safe, have fallen ; 
dangers before which, if you retain your 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 271 

anxious desire to be rich, many of you un- 
doubtedly will fall. Will you turn a deaf 
ear to the voice of observation and experi- 
ence ? Will you lay to your souls the 
flattering unction of the thought, that, 
though others have fallen, you shall stand 
firm ? Will you turn a deaf ear to the 
voice that comes up from the depths of 
your own souls, and the noblest principles 
of your own natures, calling upon you to 
give heed to the cultivation of your moral 
and spiritual capacities ? Will you turn a 
deaf ear to the cries of suffering, every 
where around you, from the hard times, 
much of which must be attributed to men's 
anxious desire to be rich, much of which 
might have been avoided had men been 
contented with regular and moderate gains, 
and gradual accumulations, and the pros- 
pect or the enjoyment of competency ? 
This is the voice of God in his^Providence. 
And as I said in the commencement of 
this chapter, so I say now, the lesson, 



272 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

which these hard times were intended and 
calculated to teach, will not be fully learn- 
ed, until men see the folly and the danger 
of an anxious desire to be rich. As long 
as this desire is retained and cherished, 
so long will men be ready to rush again 
into rash speculations, which will, in the 
result, only bring round again a repetition 
of the scenes through which we are now 
passing. The declarations of God's word 
are in accordance with the instructions of 
his Providence. The true and proper 
feeling upon this subject is beautifully ex- 
pressed in the prayer of Agur, '' Give me 
neither poverty nor riches, feed me with 
food couA^^enient for me, lest FbeTull and 
deny thee, and say who is the Lord, or 
lest I be poor and steal, and take the name 
of God in vain." Our Saviour says, ^^the 
care of this world and the deceitfulness of 
riches choke the word." '^How hardly shall 
they that have, or trust in riches, enter the 
kingdom of God." This it is true, is high- 



THE GOLDEN MEAN. 273 

Jy figurative language, but it expresses 
something. Does it not impress the mind 
of every reader, with a strong feeUng of 
the moral and spiritual dangers of wealth ? 
Such is the voice of God's revealed in- 
struction. Will you turn a deaf ear to 
this, and still cherish the anxious desire to 
be rich, still press madly on in the endeav- 
or to secure wealth ? If the instructions 
of observation and experience, the de- 
mands of the higher capacities of your 
own natures, the lessons of God's Provi- 
dence, and the express declarations of his 
revealed word, will not produce the desir- 
ed effect, neither would it be produced, we 
may fear,though one were to rise from the 
dead. 



CHAP. VII. 

THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 

The subject of this chapter is, the|right use 
of property. There is a right use, and 
there is an abuse, of property. The right 
use of property consists in employing it 
for those purposes, which it is adapted and 
was intended to accompUsh. The abuse 
of property consists in employing it for 
purposes, which indeed it is adapted to ac- 
complish, but which are the very reverse 
of those it was intended to accomplish. I 
have felt it necessary to speak upon this 
subject, before closing my volume, for two 
reasons. In the first place, it is a subject, 
which is of vast importance in itself, and 
one that is but little thought of in the 
community. In the second place, it seems 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 275 

to be necessary to speak upon this subject, 
in order to make a complete and perfect 
whole of the series of subjects to which I 
have directed the attention of my readers. 
I have spoken of the importance of indus- 
try, economy and honesty. If any one 
pursue the course suggested in these three 
chapters, is industrious, economical and 
honest, he will, under ordinary circumstan- 
ces, be gradually gaining property. Then 
I have pointed out the folly of an anxious 
desire to be rich, and the danger of pos- 
sessing immense wealth. The question 
will therefore, naturally arise, as to the 
use which is to be made of the property 
gained. An individual may say, I am in- 
dustrious, economical and honest. And 
this course results in gradual, but constant- 
ly increasing, accumulations ; if persever- 
ed in, it will, under ordinary circumstan- 
ces, secure the possession of wealth. And 
yet there is danger, moral danger, in hoard- 
ing and possessing immense wealth. What 



276 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

then is to be done ? How am I to use 
property, in such a manner, that I may 
continue on in my course, and yet avoid 
the danger of too great possessions ? It 
is my object, in this chapter, to answer 
this question, and so complete the idea, 
with which I commenced, of carrying re- 
Hgious principle into the government of 
the business transactions of every-day life. 
In order to answer this question satisfac- 
torily, and in accordance with the spirit of 
Christianity, I must first offer a few remarks 
upon the philosophy of human nature, in 
order to shew in what way, property may 
be so employed, as to promote, at the same 
time, the happiness and improvement of 
the individual, the best good of society at 
large, and the best welfare of the rising- 
generation. 

And first, I remark, that man is not 
merely a creature of sense, of appetites, 
and animal propensities. If he Avere, it 
would follow that any use of property, 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 277 

which would secure the gratification of the 
senses, the appetites and propensities, 
would best promote individual happiness 
and improvement. But, we are blessed 
with intellectual capacities, with tender af- 
fections, with moral impulses, and with 
spiritual longings. Consequently, it will 
follow, that the happiness of man, in his 
whole nature, will be increased, in pro- 
portion as these higher qualities of his na- 
ture are developed and improved and 
rightly directed. But it is a principle or 
law^ of our natures, that, if any appetite 
or propensity be indulged, the indulgence 
granted will give it strength and power 
over us, and, that if any capacity, affec- 
tion, impulse or aspiration be exercised or 
cherished, by being carried out into our 
conduct, it will, thereby, be developed and 
improved. If, for example, you place 
your affections upon the gratification of 
the appetites and propensities, and employ 
your property for that purpose, you may 
23 



278 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

become an epicure;, a glutton, a wine bib- 
ber, an intemperate drinker, or a sensual- 
ist. You may, by such indulgence, so 
strengthen these appetites and propensities, 
that they will acquire a perfect control 
over you, and you will become their abject 
and degraded slave. On the other hand, if 
you seek so to employ your property, as to 
secure the means of exercising your intel- 
lectual capacities, of cherishing pure and 
holy affections, correct moral impulses and 
devout spiritual aspirations, you will find, 
as the result, that these qualities of your 
nature are gaining strength, becoming more 
fully developed, and acquiring a control 
over your conduct. To be more particu- 
lar in my illustrations, suppose that you 
have property, and that you hoard the prop- 
erty you possess, and dwell with secret 
self-complacency upon your treasure ; that 
you refuse to expend of that treasure, for 
the cultivation of your own intellectual 
and moral natures, or for the advancement 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 279 

of the intellectual moral, and religious good 
of the community, and seek only so to in- 
vest it, that it shall be constantly increas- 
ing. In doing this, you are exercising and 
thereby, strengthening your selfish feelings. 
You are denying and destroying the pow- 
er of other and higher principles of your 
nature. And you may become, as the re- 
sult of such a course, if pursued to an ex- 
treme, a close-fisted, hard-hearted miser ; 
rich indeed in the possession of wealth, 
but not rich in all those qualities of mind 
and heart and soul, which dignify and ex- 
alt the man. Such will be the effect, 
which the use you have made of your 
property, or rather your abuse of it, 
has had upon the state and character of 
your own soul. But suppose that you 
make a diflFerent use of your property, that 
you expend it in luxurious living, in ex- 
pensive dwellings and furniture, in the 
means, of gratifying the senses, the appe- 
tites, the propensities, in adorning and 



280 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

pampering your body. In such a course, 
you will employ your thoughts upon these 
things, more and more, and will thereby 
destroy the power of your minds to grasp 
with loftier themes. You will be cherish- 
ing vanity and a love of display, and in- 
dulging and strengthening the appetites 
and propensities, whose gratification you 
seek ; while, at the same time, you will be 
cherishing your selfish feelings, in a form 
it is true different from that last noticed. 
That is, your selfishness will not consist in 
seeking pleasure from the thought of your 
hoarded treasures, but in seeking pleasure 
from the gratification of the lower quali- 
ties of your nature. Yet it is equally with 
the other, selfishness, and equally as far 
removed from all interests in, or devotion 
to, the good of others. You perceive 
that, by the course I have supposed, your 
feelings, and the state of your soul, and 
even your character, will become strongly 
marked by certain peculiar features : and 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 281 

that this is the result of the manner^ in 
which you have used, or rather abused, 
your property. But again, suppose that 
you employ your property in still a differ- 
ent manner. Suppose that you expend 
a portion of it, in securing the means of 
knowledge, in the purchase of books and 
in surrounding yourself with those advan- 
tages and opportunities, which may ena- 
ble you to be constantly exercising your 
own mind ; that you employ a portion of 
it, in aiding and assisting the virtuous, en- 
terprising and industrious around you; that 
you employ a portion of it, in sustaining 
in the community those institutions, which 
have for their object the promotion of the 
intellectual and moral and religious good 
of the community ; and that you employ 
a portion of it in seeking out and afford- 
ing relief to the poor, the sick and the dis- 
tressed. If you pursue this course, your 
mind will naturally become more and more 
deeply interested in these things. A thirst 



282 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

for knowledge will be continually becom- 
ing stronger within you. Your interest in, 
your sympathies with, and your affec- 
tions for those, who are springing up 
around you and pursuing the ways of vir- 
tue and industry and prudence, will be 
constantly increasing. Your interest in 
the intellectual and moral and religious 
good of the community will be constantly 
increasing. Your benevolent affections 
will be constantly acquiring a more marked 
and powerful control over your conduct. 
And you perceive, that, in this way, the 
state of your feelings and soul and char- 
acter will become marked and peculiar, 
and that this will be the result of the man- 
ner, in which you have employed your 
property. I have thus pointed out three 
different characters, formed by the em- 
ployment of property in three different 
ways, in order to shew in what way, prop- 
erty may be so employed as to promote in- 
dividual happiness and improvement. I 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. '283 

need not stay to prove that the last sug- 
gested mode of employing property is that, 
in which it is devoted to the accomplish- 
ment of those purposes, vi^hich it is adap- 
ted and was intended to accomplish in re- 
gard to the individual. 

Nor need I enter upon any long ar- 
gument or illustrations, to shew that this 
mode of employing property is calculated 
to promote the best interests of society. 
For it will be evident to every one, that 
he, who so employs his property, is setting 
a good example. As his conduct promotes 
his own happiness and improvement, so 
the same course will promote the happi- 
ness and improvement of every one, who 
may follow his example. Then too, such 
an individual breathes into every one, with 
whom he may come into contact, a right 
feeling and a right spirit. We all of us 
breathe into those around us, if I may so 
speak, something of our own peculiar feel- 
ings and spirit. The habitually cheerful 



284 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

man does much towards making all around 
him cheerful, and this too, without dwell- 
ing upon the importance or inculcating the 
duty of cheerfulness, but simply by breath- 
ing into others the spirit, which marks 
the hue and character of his own soul. A 
worldly minded man breathes into others 
around him a spirit of worldliness. And 
a truly devout and pious man breathes the 
spirit of devotion and piety into all around 
him. On this principle, he who regards 
property, but as a trust from God, to be 
employed in doing good, breathes the 
same spirit into other hearts, and excites 
corresponding feelings there. In addi- 
tion to these indirect and less palpable in- 
fluences, an individual, who employs his 
property as I have supposed, does much 
towards establishing and sustaining those 
institutions, which have for their object 
the promotion of tlie intellectual, moral 
and religious good of the community. The 
same mode of employing property then, 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. ^285 

which promotes one's own happiness and 
improvement, is calculated to promote the 
best interests of the community. 

My remarks in proof of the position, that 
this same course is adapted to promote 
the best v/elfare of the rising generation, 
should perhaps be more extended. The ed- 
ucation of children,is secured not merely by 
attending good schools, and studying many 
and appropriate lessons. This is but a part, 
and generally a very small part, of what 
may properly be called education. Edu- 
cation in its enlarged sense, embraces all 
the habits one may form, and all the tastes 
he may acquire, and all the feelings and 
dispositions he may cherish. And this 
part of education depends upon incidental 
influences, rather than upon any direct in- 
structions, which may be given. A child 
may have the best of teachers, and may 
become a thorough scholar in the knowl- 
edge of books, and yet he may acquire, 
from his parents and others with whom he 



286 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

asociates; decidedly vulgar tastes. If then 
you are worldly-minded, given to the ac- 
cumulation and hoarding of wealth, there 
is every probability that, through the in- 
fluence of your example, or by the dif- 
fusion of the spirit by which you are actu- 
ated, your children will acquire a some- 
what similar state of feelings. If gain is 
the great object of your desires and efforts; 
if, as you speak of one and another, you 
dwell with evident pleasure upon the cir- 
cumstance that those of whom you speak, 
have acquired or possessed riches, there is 
much reason to believe that the accumula- 
tion of riches is regarded by you as the one 
all-important object of life. And your 
child will be quick to draw this conclusion 
and to practice upon it. If you are given to 
parade and show, to splendid establish- 
ments and luxurious living ; if you speak 
of these with interest, as though they were 
the essential elements of happiness, then 
will your child catch the same spirit. But 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 287 

if, OH the contrary, your whole course be 
one of dihgence and industry, of economy 
and honesty, of contentment with moder- 
ate gains, and of hberahty in those expen- 
ditures, which are calculated to promote 
intellectual, moral and social good, then 
will your children catch from you this 
same spirit. The habits, feelings, and dis- 
positions of the rising generation, then, are 
determined in a great degree by the mode 
in which their elders, and especially 
their parents, conduct in their ordinary 
a;nd every day transactions; by the tone of 
their conversation; by the spirit which they 
breathe. I am aware that there are some 
exceptions to this position. It sometimes 
happens, that the son of a miser is himself 
a spendthrift. But these are exceptions, 
which may be accounted for on some 
known counteracting influences, and which 
consequently serve to confirm rather than 
invalidate the correctness of the position 
itself. Indeed, I beheve that the more ex- 



288 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

tensive our observation may be, the more 
strongly convinced shall we be of the cor- 
rectness of my position as a general rule. 
Suppose, by the way of applying this princi- 
ple, that two individuals accumulate the 
same amount of property. The one 
hoards and leaves to his children the sum 
of one hundred thousand dollars. In do- 
ing this, he has denied himself all the 
means of intellectual improvement, stands 
aloof from all those efforts, which tend to 
promote the best good of the community, 
takes no part in encouraging virtue, indus- 
try and enterprise, in relieving distress and 
promoting happiness, and breathes this 
same spirit into his children. He has 
done nothing to interest them in mind, in 
virtue, in benevolence. He has done noth- 
ing to surround them with institutions and 
influences, which are calculated to pro- 
mote knowledge, purity and holiness. He 
leaves them, in the midst of a communi- 
ty, which may be marked by ignorance. 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 289 

by selfishness, by low and grovelling and 
earthly tastes, by intemperance and im- 
morality of every kind, by irreligion, pro- 
fanity and infidelity. He has left them, I 
say, under such influences, in the midst of 
such society, themselves corresponding in 
feeling and character, with those among 
whom they mingle. But he has left them 
a hundred thousand dollars. The other 
has accumulated in the course of his life, 
the same amount of property, but has em- 
ployed his accumulations in the way I have 
suggested. He has sought, in regard to 
himself, for intellectual, moral and reli- 
gious improvement. He has been active 
in the enterprises, which are calculated to 
promote the best good of the community; 
he has been liberal in establishing and sus- 
taining institutions for the advancement of 
knowledge, for the promotion of temper- 
ance, morality and piety. He has manifest- 
ed great interest in all benevolent efforts, 
and has breathed into his children his own 
24 



290 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

spirit, has trained them up to habits of in- 
dustry, economy, honesty and self-depen- 
dence ; has taught them to seek moral im- 
provement, rather than the accumulation 
of wealth ; to regard riches as the means 
of doing good and to be employed for high 
and holy purposes. He leaves them in 
the midst of a community, w^iich has, 
through his influence, in a good degree 
become intelligent, and temperate, and 
religious ; he leaves them in the enjoy- 
ment, in common with the rest of the com- 
munity, of the institutions of learning, of 
benevolence, and of religion, which are 
adapted to purify and elevate the soul, to 
enlarge and expand the mind, to liberalize 
and soften the feelings, to refine and im- 
prove the taste ; he leaves them in the en- 
joyment of such influences, in the midst of 
such society, themselves possessed of the 
same spirit, by whicli he was actuated, 
the ornaments and pillars of the community 
in which they dwell. But he leaves them 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 291 

comparatively poor in this world's goods, 
with but just enough to aid them in efforts 
of their own^and not enough to excite with- 
in them the feeling that they need not put 
forth eflbrts, to make personal and vigorous 
exertion of all their powers. I have pictur- 
ed a contrast, have presented two cases,and 
have set the one over against the other. 
And now, I ask, which of these two will 
be pronounced, by every reasonable man, 
to have so employed his property, as best to 
promote the welfare, happiness and im- 
provement of his children ? Can there be 
any doubt ? I have presented extreme ca- 
ses, and a striking contrast, in order to il- 
lustrate more clearly and vividly the prin- 
ciple. The principle holds good in its 
less obvious, and less marked manifesta- 
tions ; the principle, that he who so em- 
ploys his property as to exercise, cherish 
and develope the better principles of his 
own nature, will, by the same act, so em- 
ploy it, as to promote the best welfare of 



292 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the rising generation. I have thus, as I 
proposed, at some length, and with 
some degree of particularity in detail 
touched upon some views of the philos- 
ophy of human nature, in order to show 
in what manner a right improvement of the 
property may promote at the same time, 
happiness and improvement of the in- 
dividual, the best interests of society at 
large, and the best welfare of the rising- 
generation. 

From what I have already stated, my 
readers will have anticipated the general 
principle, which I would inculcate in re- 
gard to the use of property. It is this. 
Property is not to be hoarded, nor yet to 
be squandered. It is to be employed, un- 
der a sense of our accountability, in doing 
good, in promoting the improvement, both 
of ourselves and of our fellow men, 
in all the various parts of our nature; 
as social, intellectual, moral and spiritual 
beings. If then you have property, you 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 293 

should feel that an important trust has 
been committed to you by God, and that 
there are solemn responsibilities connect- 
ed with the reception of that trust. You 
should feel that, to your God you are ac- 
countable for the manner in which you 
employ that property ; that you are under 
the most solemn obligations to employ it 
in accordance with his will, and for the 
promotion of his glory, by employing it for 
the advancement of the best good of his 
children. This is the principle. Dwell 
upon it, I beseech you, in your medita- 
tions. Let it sink deep and become firmly 
fixed in your hearts. Let it exert a con- 
trolling influence over your conduct. 

And now I proceed to the application 
of this principle. First, a man must pro- 
vide for himself and for those depen- 
dent upon him. This is a christian duty. 
For, saith the apostle, '^ if any provide not 
for his own, and especially for those of his 

own household, he hath denied the faith 

24# 



294 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

and is worse than an infidel.^' But, in pro- 
viding for himself and for those depend- 
ent upon him, a man is to provide for the 
supply of real wants, and not for the grat- 
ification of all appetites and desires, which 
may crave indulgence ; not for the de- 
mands of fancy, fashion, and an extrava- 
gant standard of gentility. The difficulty 
here is, that men are slaves, perfect, and 
too often, abject slaves to fashion and gen- 
tihty. They do not provide for their real 
wants, they provide for the demands of 
fashion and gentihty. But what are our 
real wants ? We need comfortable food 
and clothing, and protection fof our bodies. 
In our food, in our dress, in our dwellings 
and furniture, we should ask what is best 
adapted to promote our health, our com- 
fort and our happiness, and not what fash- 
ion or gentility may demand of us. Again, 
we have minds, and knowledge is the 
food of the mind, which promotes its 
growth and strength. The means of 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 295 

knowledge then are as much a real want 
as are the food and clothing of the body. 
And it is just as important that they should 
be provided for, and attended to. We 
must have then books and schools of in- 
struction, and other means of knowledge, 
in order to supply our real wants. We 
have social affections and various pure and 
elementary tastes, which, if purified and 
rightly directed, and properly cherished, 
will promote our happiness and improve- 
ment. We need then pure and refined 
and elevating society ; we need the works 
of art, which are calculated to improve and 
correct the taste. These are real wants 
of our nature. And he who has proper- 
ty and rightly understands the wants of his 
nature, will be ready to contribute his share 
for the moral improvement, for the refine- 
ment and purification of the society in 
which he lives, that, by so doing, he may 
provide for his own social and moral wants. 
And finally, we have religious wants, re- 



296 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

ligious natures ; and religious knowledge, 
religious institutions and services, are ne- 
cessary for the improvement of these reli- 
gious nature^. These are all, I contend, 
as much the real wants of our nature, as 
are the food and clothing of our bodies. 
Indeed it may be the case, that to deny 
ourselves of a meal's victuals, or of a gar- 
ment which would indeed be comfortable , 
in order to secure the means of religious 
improvement, may be the wiser course. 
Such then are our real wants, such the 
real wants of the community, and such will 
be the real wants of the rising generation. 
It is true that men do not feel these to be 
wants of their nature. But still they are 
none the less real. Yet the different in- 
dividuals of the community are so bound 
together, the future is so linked with the 
present, that the means of supplying these 
wants, may be provided by the members 
of the community in their associated ca- 
pacity. If you expend a portion of your 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 297 

property in establishing and sustaining a 
social library, institutions of learning, ef- 
forts for the improvement of society in 
temperance and morality of every kind, 
especially for the support of institutions 
of religion, you are thereby providing for 
the supply of your real wants, the real 
w^ants of the community, and the real 
wants of the rising generation. Contribu- 
tions, then, to these objects, should be re- 
garded by the man of property as a matter 
of duty ; duty to his own highest and best 
nature, duty to the best good of society, 
and the best welfare of the young. The 
difficulty, on this point, however, does not 
arise from the supply of our present wants, 
it arises from not knowing how far to go 
in providing a supply for future want. 
Some contend that we should hoard all we 
may lawfully acquire, in order to provide 
for the worst contingences of the future^ 
But this implies a distrust of Providence, 
which will be extended over us, with the 



298 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

same kind care through all our future lives, 
as it is now; and then too, it aims at impos- 
sibility. For it is impossible for any man 
to place himself above the liability to want. 
Such are the fluctuations in business ; in 
the state of the- times, in the value, securi- 
ty, and productiveness of property, that 
no man can place himself above the habil- 
ity to want. Still further, during our 
future lives, while we have strength to la- 
bour, it is of the utmost importance, that 
we should not be placed above the power 
of the motive, which the probabihty of 
want, may furnish to urge us to effort. 

Still further, in providing a supply for 
our future wants, we may provide for all 
those, which can be supplied from the 
same source, which furnishes the supply 
of our present wants. '^ To support him- 
self and family for the present, one man 
needs a farm and implements of husband- 
ry, another a shop and tools, another his 
books, another still, a capital, a store or a 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 299 

vessel. How large the capital, by the use 
of which a man is to obtain a livelihood 
must be, may be easily determined, when 
his circumstances, the number of those de- 
pendent upon him, and the nature of his 
pursuit, are known. If, as is most general- 
ly the case, the capital invested be greater 
than is required for the continued supply 
of the immediate and constantly recurring 
wants of himself and those dependent up- 
on him, then let him take the supply of 
hig real and immediate wants first, let him 
next be laying by gradually something for 
a season of sickness and for approaching 
old age, and then let him devote the rest 
to the good of the community, by employ- 
ing it for the promotion of such objects, as 
his own judgment, under the influence of 
christian principle, may approve. But let 
him not add house to house, field to field, 
and enlarge his business indefinitely, with- , 
out regard to moral principle, with no aim 
but that of gratifying his love of wealthy 



300 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

or his desire of the distinction which 
wealth may bestow." In illustration of 
this position, suppose that a young man is 
engaged in mercantile pursuits. In order 
that he may do such an amount of busi- 
ness, as will, by its profits, furnish the 
present support of himself and his family, 
he must invest a certain amount of capital 
in the stock and means of carrying on that 
business. And it will generally, if not in- 
variably, happen, that, in order to provide 
for the probable fluctuations in business, 
the capital invested will be much more 
than sufficient to furnish, in ordinary busi- 
ness times, this bare support. In such a 
case, he will take first his ordinary supplies, 
he will next lay by, from the profits, 
something, as a protection against becom- 
ing, in case of sickness, a burden upon oth- 
ers, and then he will devote the rest to the 
good of the community. This position, if 
adopted and practiced upon, will guard 
the young, healthy and prosperous, against 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 301 

a selfish and indefinite enlargement of bus- 
iness, and against a miserly hoarding of all 
gains. As he is daily and yearly receiving 
the supply of his wants, through the bles- 
sing of God upon his business, so he will 
be annually dispensing, from what he re- 
ceives, for the promotion of the good of 
man, for the advancement of the glory of 
God. He will be cherishing his feelings 
of dependence upon God, and his spirit of 
benevolence to man. He will be strength- 
ening his sense of accountability to God, 
and will be acting out his true character 
of a steward, in the employment of what 
is entrusted to him, according to the will 
of him, who has committed the trust. 
While such will be the influence upon the 
young, the healthy and the prosperous, it 
will, at the same time, provide for those, 
who are passing into advanced age and 
increasing infirmity, for it will author- 
ise all such, to increase their property as 
their strength may diminish, until it is 
25 



302 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

sufficient to furnish the necessaries of 
Hfe, with the feehng that, at their death, 
their accumulations if any remain, and 
there be none dependent, will be devoted 
to the good of the community. ^^In re- 
gard to the inheritance, which a man may 
leave to those dependent upon him, the 
same principle should be applied, by which 
he would regulate the supply of his wants. 
He may leave them the means of carrying 
forward their business, and thereby pro- 
curing the supply of their wants, by the 
exertion of their own faculties. But, if he 
may not hoard wealth indefinitely for 
himself, so he may not bequeath it in the 
same manner to his children." 

" Here then we have the principle of 
our duty in reference to the talent of prop- 
erty. It must be employed in the pro- 
duction of good, to the greatest possible 
extent. There are our real wants, the sup- 
port of life, health and comfort ; the prop- 
er cultivation of our minds, and the means 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 303 

of grace. There are our claims upon the 
bounties of God, a supply for our daily 
wants, implying a source'from which that 
supply may be obtained, which will also 
be a provision for the supply, by the ac- 
tive exertion of our own faculties, of our 
future wants. If any man will go beyond 
these limits it is impossible to see where 
he will stop, or what reason he will have 
for stopping at all. He will act the part 
of a supremely selfish man, and will, in 
the end, become so. He will violate his 
duty to God, and will endanger the im- 
provement * and happiness of his own 
soul.'' 

I will now proceed to offer some sug- 
gestions, as to the^ways, in which a man of 
wealth may employ the talent with which 
God has entrusted him, in the promotion 
of the best good of the'^community. 

And first, I would repeat the suggestion 
which has already been hinted, that he will 
be instrumental of much good to the com- 



304 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

munity, by giving, of his property, for the 
establishment and maintainance of institu- 
tions for the supply of the means of knowl- 
edge, for the promotion of intellectual im- 
provement, of moral purity, and of reli- 
gious progress. What a vast amount of 
evil might be prevented,what a vast amount 
of good might be accomplished, in any 
place, if there were those, who were able 
and disposed to establish a library, upon 
such principles as would extend its bene- 
fits to the inhabitants generally, and espe- 
cially to the young. How many would, 
through the influence of such an institu- 
tion, be saved from idleness, and from dis- 
sipation ; would be inspired wdth a thirst 
for knowledge, and would be led so to 
employ their leisure hours, as to lay broad, 
and deep, and solid foundations, for future 
usefulness and respectability. Again, 
what a vast amount of evil might be pre- 
vented, what a vast amount of good might 
be accomplished, in any place, were there 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 305 

those; who were both able and willing to 
endow liberally, or to make arrangements 
for the permanent liberal support of an 
institution of learning, of a high charac- 
ter, where the youth might become thor- 
oughly furnished for all their duties, as in- 
tellectual, social and moral beings. The 
good accomplished by institutions like 
these, is not to be estimated by the amount 
of knowledge, which individuals would 
acquire,nor yet by the number, who might 
become, through their instrumentality, 
thoroughly educated. But, in addition to 
these benefits, you must take into account, 
the general standard of acquirements, 
which would be spread through the com- 
munity. An intellectual taste would be 
diffused; an intellectual atmosphere would 
be created. Or, perhaps, this end would 
be the more effectually and the more 
extensively secured, if our common 
schools could be endowed, if I may so 
speak, by private liberality, with funds for 
25^ 



306 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

the support of teachers in particular branch- 
es, beyond, and in addition to those usual- 
ly taught in them. Indeed, it matters 
not so much as to the mode, which is a- 
dopted. Any mode, by which an interest 
in intellectual improvement should be ex- 
cited, and the means of mental cultivation 
furnished, which might approve itself 
to the good judgment of the wealthy, 
would be instrumental of much good in 
the community, and constitutes one of 
the ways, in which the rich may so em- 
ploy their property, as to promote the 
good of society. 

Again much may be done for the pro- 
motion of the good of society, by aiding 
and encouraging efforts for the moral wel- 
fare of the community. And I would in- 
stance, as an example of this mode of do- 
ing good, the efforts in behalf of temper- 
ance. I am aware, that, with many, there 
is a prejudice against temperance socie- 
ties and temperance pledges. But still, 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 307 

I have never found the man, of the least 
respectabihty of character, who does not 
regard intemperance as a great evil, who 
does not profess to be willing to do some- 
thing for its removal from the community. 
If then you object to temperance societies 
and pledges, still you may expend of your 
property in the purchase and distribution 
of such books as point out the evils of 
intemperance, and the remedy for these 
evils. You may aid liberally in defraying 
the expense, attendant upon efforts to 
arouse the community to a true sense of 
their danger from this evil. You object to 
force, compulsion, or legislative interfer- 
ence, but still, this can be no objection to 
your lending aid, by means of your prop- 
erty, to extend the power of moral sua- 
sion. 

I mention this as an instance of efforts 
for moral good, which is well worthy the 
aid and encouragement of the wealthy. 
There are various moral efforts,of the same 



308 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

class, designed to accomplish specific ob- 
jectjSome of which will approve themselves 
to one mind, and some to another, but 
all of which are worthy of encouragement. 
Still further, much may be done for the 
promotion of the good of the community, 
by encouraging pure and innocent and 
healthful sources of amusement. We 
must refresh and recreate ourselves in 
some way. I am satisfied that, in cities 
especially, the influence of moral eflTorts, 
and even of religious services, is more 
often counteracted, in regard to the young, 
by the corrupting amusements in which 
they indulge, than by almost any other cir- 
cumstance. You may be anxious for the 
moral and religious welfare of your son, or 
your clerk. You may see, in this anxiety, 
that he is industrious during the business 
hours of the day. You may see that he 
attends upon religious services on the 
sabbath. But, in doing this, you have 
not provided for their whole natures, and 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPKRTY. 309 

for all the wants of those natures. There 
will be need, occasionally, of refreshment 
from severer labors and even from earnest 
engagedness in religious things, by amuse- 
ment. This amusement will be sought in 
the gratification of some of the principles of 
our nature, which are not brought into ex- 
ercise in the regular employments of busi- 
ness. If then your son, although indus- 
trious during business hours, and attentive 
upon the public worship and social servi- 
ces of the Sabbath, spends his evenings at 
the theatre, or at those loitering places, 
where the idle and the vicious congregate, 
or even in the social and too frequently, 
the convivial club, the few hours spent in 
this way, may counteract all the good in- 
fluences, under which, in other respects, 
you have placed him. It is important to 
provide for the community the means of 
industry, of moral and religious improve- 
ment, but it is no less important to provide 
sources of healthful amusement. 



310 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

Once more, I would suggest, as an im- 
portant means of doing good, the loaning 
of money, at a moderate profit, to enter- 
prising, industrious and virtuous young 
men of business. Here is a virtuous, in- 
dustrious and enterprising young mechan- 
ic; he may, with a little assistance, be en- 
couraged to persevering efforts in his bus- 
iness. By shewing yourself his friend, 
and aiding him, you may be instrumental 
of doing much good. So too, here is a 
young merchant, his character and capa- 
cities are good, and if he should succeed, 
he promises to be a worthy member of so- 
ciety. And you, it may be, have been for 
years engaged in successful business. You 
have your capital secured, and feel at 
your ease, in that respect. You feel too, 
that you must soon leave the sphere of 
your occupations. Now, by lending this 
young man your name, or by loaning to 
him of your money, you encourage and 
cheer him on, you have a Iiold upon him. 



THE KIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 311 

and an influence over him, for the security 
of his good conduct; you do something to- 
wards estabUshing in the community, one, 
who shall be a firm supporter of every 
thing which is good. I do not suggest, 
that you should take such an one from his 
place, and by bestowing upon him prop- 
erty, make him rich. Such would prob- 
ably be his ruin. All I would suggest is, 
that you affbrd him the means of honoura- 
ble effort, and that you give him to under- 
stand, that you do it, on account of your 
confidence in his principles and character, 
and that, while he adheres to these princi- 
ples and maintains this character, you will 
continue to assist him. And so too, when, 
in the fluctuations of the times, such an 
one is pressed hard, a little timely encour- 
agement and assistance, may do much 
good. Let the rich capitalist, who has 
passed the period of enterprising activity, 
in the transaction of business, feel that, by 
encouraging, and assisting enterprising in- 



312 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

dustrious and virtuous young men, he is 
doing good. I am aware, that in this sug- 
gestion, I shall differ from many. I have 
often heard it said, that all pious young 
men, should feel themselves called upon to 
prepare for the ministry, and that the rich 
ought to give for the education of such. 
What I would say is, that pious young 
men, who have the talent and adaptation 
for the ministry, and are strongly prompt- 
ed to enter that field of labour, should be 
encouraged and assisted so to do, and that 
the wealthy should feel, that, by affording 
them the means of education, they are 
doing good. But I wish to see more pi- 
ous mechanics, more pious merchants, 
men who shall be christian missionaries in 
their own spheres and pursuits, men who 
shall carry the principles and the spirit of 
the gospel into their shops and their coun- 
ting rooms, and breathe it forth among 
those with whom they associate. If, 
therefore, I were a wealthy christian, and 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPEKTY. 313 

found u pious young man, nay more, if I 
found a virtuous young man, a man of cor- 
rect moral principles, and good habits, in 
mechanical or mercantile employments, 
who might seem to be fitted for his occu- 
pation, I should feel that I had met my 
vows of consecrating my property to Christ, 
by encouraging and assisting such an one 
in his pursuit. And I would suggest this, 
as one of the modes of doing good, by the 
right employment of property. 

It will be expected that I should say 
something, while upon this subject, in re- 
gard to charitable institutions. I would 
say then, that benevolent societies, of ev- 
ery description, have a claim upon the at- 
tention and the patronage of the wealthy, 
and even upon all, according to their 
means, and the different objects, charac- 
ter and modes of management, by which 
they are respectively distinguished ; that 
we should regard it as a duty, and privil- 
ege, to contribute to their means of doing 
26 



314 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

good. But I may here add a few remarks 
upon what seems to me a most efficient 
mode of charity, which as yet has been 
almost wholly neglected. I refer to efforts 
for the prevention of pauperism, and for 
aiding the poor, by placing them in a way 
of supporting themselves, by their own in- 
dustry. The evils of poverty spring chief- 
ly from idleness and vice. If you could 
remove idleness and vice from the com- 
munity, you would do much towards re- 
moving, if not poverty itself, at least its 
sorest evils. Could then a society be formed 
for the purpose of seeking information in re- 
gard to the sources of pauperism, and of 
maturing and putting in practice plans for 
the prevention of pauperism, it might be 
instrumental of much good in the commu- 
nity. I would not have the usual mode 
of charitable giving, neglected for this. 
But, while we are assisting the poor, as 
we are able, we should also be seeking out 
the means of preventing pauperism, by the 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 315 

removal of idleness and vice, from the 
community. One remark more in regard 
to charitable contributions. The more en- 
tirely you become the almoners of your 
own bounties, the more beneficial to you 
v^^ill be your charitable efforts. If you give 
ten dollars per year, in contributions to the 
funds of charitable institutions, you will 
have gained something, by the exercise of 
your benevolent feelings. But if you would 
become yourself a visitor of the poor, you 
would be much more profited, although 
you might not spend a larger amount. 

Finally, I would urge upon all, who 
have the means, of giving, whether to a 
larger or smaller amount, the claims of the 
Gospel. The liberal support of institu- 
tions of religion in your own place of res- 
idence, you will, of course, regard, not as 
a charitable contribution but as the means 
of providing the supply of your own most 
important wants. What I now speak of, 
is contributions for missionary purposes, 



316 WEEK-D4LY RELIGION. 

for sending the Bible and the preacher, to 
the destitute and the unenlightened, I 
would place efforts of this kind, on the 
ground of patriotism, humanity and reli- 
gion. What has secured tons, the eleva- 
tion, refinement, and purity of society, 
which we enjoy ? It is the religion of Je- 
sus. What is it, that causes every heart 
to throb with warmer and stronger pulsa- 
tions, at the name of liberty ? It is the 
religion of Jesus, which teaches the equal- 
ity and the brotherhood of all, which strikes 
at the root of all aristocracies, whether of 
wealth, of power, or of knowledge. What 
secures our very dwelling*^ from violation, 
and our very property from plunder ? Will 
you say that it is the power of law? What 
I ask, would be the power of law, were it 
not sustained by public opinion ? No, it 
is the religion of Jesus. The giving of your 
abundance or of your competency, to 
spread the religion of Jesus, throughout 
the length and breadth of this land, 1 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 317 

would plead on the simple ground of pat- 
riotism. I would place the claims of the 
Gospel^ upon your efforts to spread it 
among other nations, upon the common 
principles of human benevolence. Have 
you been seized with a violent and dan- 
gerous disease, and have you, after much 
suffering, received a remedy, which has 
proved a perfect cure ? Do you see your 
fellow men suffering from the same disease, 
and will you refuse to extend your hand 
for their relief ? It is not in the heart of 
man to do this. Have you experienced 
the misery of sin ? have you been relieved 
by the hopes and promises, the disclosures 
and instructions of the Gospel ? Do you 
see your fellow men, still suffering from 
sin, and will refuse to send them to the 
Physician of souls? It is not in the heart 
of man to do it. 

And then too, will you not hear the 
voice of your master, saying, " freely you 
have received, freely give ?" And will 
26=^ 



318 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

you. not remember; that these were the 
words of one, who gave himself to the 
death of the cross. But I need not say 
more. It would seem, that there cannot 
be a reflecting man, who possesses a spark 
of patriotism, an iota of humanity, or the 
least tincture of the christian spirit, who 
can object to missionary efforts, efforts for 
sending the Bible and the preacher to the 
ignorant and the unenlightened. 

I have thus offered some suggestions in 
regard to the ways of doing good, with 
property. I have spoken of contributions 
to support the means of knowledge ; to 
support efforts for moral improvement, and 
for opening fountains of healthful amuse- 
ments. I have suggested the propriety of 
aiding the young and enterprising, who 
are virtuous ; of seeking for the preven- 
tion of pauperism, and of sending the Bi- 
ble and the preacher to the ignorant and 
the unenlightened. And liere I close my 
chapter and my vohime. And I would 



THE RIGHT USE OF PROPERTY. 319 

hope, that what I have said, may be in- 
strumental of good to the community. I 
would hope, that, the various suggestions, 
which in this volume I have offered, may 
be blessed by God to the good of the 
young especially. To those, who are in 
the morning of life, they are more par- 
ticularly applicable. You my friends are 
now about establishing those principles, 
which shall be the guide of your lives. Re- 
member that if there be not religious prin- 
ciple, mingling with all your other quali- 
ties, you will lack one thing, and that your 
religious principle should exert an influ- 
ence over your every-day hfe. Under the 
influence of religious principles, go for- 
ward in habits of industrious labour, in 
the practice of economy, in the exercise 
of honesty, in a cheerful contentment with 
moderate gains and gradual accumulations, 
in the religious use of your property. And 
then may you feel, that while using this 
world you are not abusing it. Then may 



320 WEEK-DAY RELIGION. 

you hope, so to pass through things tem- 
poral as to be quaUfied through the mercy, 
of God in Christ Jesus, for the enjoyment 
of glories eternal. 



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